Even Stevens and the Murderer of Stevenson House
by J. S. Writer
Summary: When Lawrence Junior High gets to go on a spectacular field trip to the Stevenson Murder Mystery House, everyone wants to go, but what if this mystery isn't just a game? COMPLETE
1. Ren Stevens: The High School Helper

A/N: This is my first "Even Stevens" fic, so I hope you like it! I'm pretty busy nowadays, but hopefully I will be able to post new chaptersas often as I possibly can.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the "Even Stevens" characters, except for perhaps the ones I make up.

**Ren Stevens: The High School Helper**

"Just turn in this permission slip filled out and signed and you'll be in for a spectacular treat!" Ren Stevens said, passing out forms to the middle school students. "The Stevenson House has been around for over 100 years, and it's a privilege that they have turned it into such a fun murder mystery house and that our school was granted the first trip there. And since I've been chosen for "high school helper" during our stay there, it is my responsibility to make sure that we don't run into any _misfortunes_ during the trip."

She shot a glance at her brother Louis, who was busy whispering something into his friend Tawny's ear. They burst out laughing.

"Oh, sorry, Ren," Louis said, snickering.

"Louis!" Ren said. "You can flirt with your little girlfriend later."

The class laughed. Louis and Tawny shot a glance at each other.

"As I was saying," Ren continued. "This will be a week-long trip, so remember to bring your toiletries and other necessities. And of course, you will also need to bring everything on the list you receive about your given character. During the entire trip, you will remain your character by day and by night, especially if you are the murderer."

"Will you be playing?" One of the students asked.

"Maybe, maybe not," Ren replied. "Anyway, I promise you that this will be a spring break you will never forget! And—to make a long story short—just get the slip signed, pack, and go. Thank you."

>>>>

"So, Louis, are you gonna go?" Louis's friend Twitty asked, staring down at his permission slip.

"I dunno," Louis replied, kicking a rock across the sidewalk as he, Twitty, and Tawny made their way out of school. "If I do, and I'm the murderer, I'm taking out Ren first."

"Sweet!" Twitty smiled. "Same here."

Tawny rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, we can sure do a lot of things to turn this little charade around," Louis replied.

"So, where's this place again?" Twitty asked.

"Um, some weird, old mansion downtown," Tawny answered. "The Stevenson House. I hear it's one of the biggest houses in California. It's been around since the Victorian age."

Louis chuckled. "The only creepy thing about that house is probably only gonna be its similarity to my name."

He dropped his jaw and squinted his eyes, imitating an elderly man focusing his eyes through some small spectacles. "Yes, I am Master Stevenson, and the sooner I get my 10,000 smackers for this little old house, the better. I've got a concert stadium to build!"

His friends laughed at the impression.

"Sounds like you're not that excited about going," Tawny observed.

"Well, murder games are okay, but—"

"But you know they're just fake," a voice emerged.

"Huh? Oh! Hey, Allison," Louis said, getting over his shock. "Uh, where'd you come from?"

She gave him the LOOK. "I've been walking behind you three the whole time."

Tawny looked at Louis weirdly, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh, right, I knew that," Louis sighed. "Huh, well, I'd better get going. I've a murder permission slip thingy to get signed, so, later!"

"Yeah, cya," Twitty said, and after Louis was gone he added, "I guess he's going on the trip. I'd better go too."

"So, Allison, are you going?" Tawny asked.

"I guess so," Allison said, smiling. "It sounds like a lot of fun! I've never done a murder mystery before, and I've never heard of Stevenson House. I think it would be fun to go."

"Yeah, I suppose I'll go too. It seems like everybody's into it. Also, I don't want to be left alone all spring break, wishing I were with everybody else."

"Well, it looks like we're going on a little vacation!" Allison joked, not receiving the slightest giggle from the others. "So. . .how does this whole thing work?"

"I'm not exactly sure. I guess we'll get all the info in our letters."

"You know, the whole idea of a murderer kind of creeps me out," Allison said, with a slight shiver. "I mean, if we're killed, what do we do for the rest of the week?"

"Well, all I can say is, don't get killed!" This received a laugh.

"Okay, I've got to go," Twitty said. "I'm meeting Louis at his house to. . .um. . .do some stuff."

"Wait, if you're meeting Louis, why didn't you just go with him back there?" Tawny demanded.

"Do I have to have a reason for everything?" Twitty shrugged, and walked off.

Tawny and Allison looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Boys," they said in unison.

"I'll see you at school tomorrow," Allison said sweetly.

"Okay," Tawny replied. "And then it's only three more days until Stevenson House!"


	2. Would You Really Tell?

**Would You Really Tell?**

"Louis!" Ren's voice broke the surprisingly existing silence of Louis' bedroom that evening.

"What?" Louis asked. "I'm trying to concentrate on becoming my character."

"For one thing, you don't have a character," Ren replied. "You haven't even turned in your slip yet! And another thing: if you do anything stupid at all on this trip, it'll be my neck."

"Don't you mean _my _neck?"

"No, _my _neck. It's my responsibility and if anything happens, my entire high school career could fall to pieces, especially if my high school teachers found our that you're my brother."

"Oh, come on, Ren," Louis replied casually, placing his arm around his sister's shoulders. "You're acting like I've already ruined your life again. Don't you worry about me. I'll be on my best behavior."

He gave her a goofy smile and pinched her cheek.

"Uh!" Ren pushed away. "Whatever, just whatever."

She started to walk away, but Louis grabbed her arm. "So, Miss High School Helper, when do we find out our characters? Who's making the decisions? They'd better be good."

"Turn in your slip first, then we'll talk." Ren returned Louis's casualty.

She shooed her him away and headed into her room.

>>>>

"Now," Ren said to herself back in her own neat room. She seated herself at her computer. "What would be the perfect character for dear Louis?"

She began typing away at her keyboard.

"Tawny? Twitty? Allison?" The typing didn't cease.

>>>>

"So, are you guys excited to see your characters?" Allison asked the next day in the lunch line. "I heard that we should be getting them in the mail pretty soon."

"Yeah, and if any of us is the murderer, we have a pact to tell each other, no matter what," Twitty added.

"Oh, definitely," Louis replied, grabbing two extra bowls of chocolate pudding behind the lunch lady's back. "What fun is it waiting until the end? It's a done deal."

"So, where's this place again?" Twitty asked as the group carried their lunch trays outside to eat. "I keep forgetting."

"Stevenson House," Tom Grabulski said, approaching the group. "It's located downtown. I hear that it's this huge mansion with all these cool artifacts from the old age—the _Victorian _Age. It should be really cool."

"Yeah, we know, Tom," Louis said.

He set his tray next to Tawny and seated himself.

"So, are you fellows looking forward to next week?" Tom asked, scooting Allison over to make room for himself. "This murder mystery is going to be so cool! I can feel my heart beating with both nervousness and excitement!"

"Yeah, can't wait," Louis replied, not wanting to encourage Tom to continue talking.

"Yeah. . .I'm ecstatic," Tawny added. She forced a smile.

"It's gonna be the bomb!" Tom exclaimed, smiling broadly. "This will be the best spring break ever!"

"Now you sound like Ren," Louis commented, hoping to bring Tom down.

"I hope I'm not the murderer," Tom continued, paying Louis's comment no mind. "I don't believe in violence."

"Oh come on, Tom. That's the best part of the whole trip!" Allison laughed, seeming to have gotten over her anxiousness about the murderer. "Besides, it's all fake."

"But it's still scary. And what is also scary is the idea of leaving Doris alone at home for an entire week—you know, with all those crazy lunatics running around at night. She goes to the convention center to play Bingo during the week around 7:00 in the evening. I hope she comes home safely."

He became lost in thought, to the relief of Louis, Twitty, and Tawny. Allison, on the other hand, looked like she wanted to comfort Tom. She placed a consoling hand on Tom's arm, but luckily, he remained quiet.

Tawny broke the moment of silence. "It's fun being the hider, or victim too," she pointed out. "You never know who's going to be behind you—"

"Hey, guys!"

"Ah!" Tawny jumped. She turned to see Ren standing behind her.

"Sorry, Ren," Tawny apologized. "You scared me."

"Oh, I'm sorry," Ren smiled. "Well, it's my free period at the high school so I decided to come down here and make sure that you all turned in your slips! I don't believe it was fair that they only gave you one day to turn them in. You see, we didn't get the opportunity to go on the trip until last Wednesday afternoon, and we had to act fast because spring break is next week—"

"I can't wait," Louis interrupted.

"I am so ecstatic!" Tawny added sincerely (as an actress, at least).

"It'll be fun!" Allison added.

Tom's face fell. "I'm just worried about Doris."

"Oh, Tom, your mother will be fine. Remember what we talked about yesterday."

Tom's face brightened and he laughed (and not to mention snorted). "Oh yeah. Thanks, Ren!"

"Oh, it was nothing," Ren smiled. "So, after you finish your food, remember to go to the office and hand in your slips!"

Then she was gone, well, at the next table at least.

"Well, I guess we _should _get our slips in now," Tawny said, standing.

"And remember our pact!" Louis added. "Tom, are you in?"

"I think I might try to be surprised," Tom said. "But I'll sleep on it anyway and tell you Monday."

Everyone threw away their trash and headed inside to the office. Halfway there, Louis remembered, "Hold on, I left my slip in my locker."

Every stopped and waited as Louis opened his locker. The second he opened the door, everyone jumped back, but they weren't surprised.

A mound of junk, rising up about a foot, fell out of Louis's locker. Louis bent over and picked a small water gun out of the pile.

"I'll need you later," he said to it quietly, and then stood and stuffed it back into his locker.

Tawny started picking up the junk and stashing it back in Louis's locker, as Louis dug around for his permission slip.

"Got it!" He said as Tawny put the last thing, a rubber duck, back into the locker.

Louis shut the door, narrowly missing Tawny's finger, and the group continued down the hallway.

"Thank you for your slip, thank you for your slip, oh! Thank you for your slip! Have fun on the trip! Oh! That rhymed." Principal Wexler's secretary giggled as she continued to take each slip one at a time from the line of students in the office.

"Have fun!" She repeated over and over again as she accepted Louis, Twitty, Tawny, Allison, and Tom's permissions slips. "And beware of Stevenson House!" She added in a Dracula-like voice, a voice unlike her "peppy" talk she had been using for the other students.

"Oh, we will!" Louis said over his shoulder, exchanging a sly smile with Twitty.

>>>>

"Mail's here!" Ren called that Saturday. She dug around for her own letters, and also pulled out two "Murder Mystery" letters from the school, which she had proudly delivered _to_ the school the day before.

They were pulled out of her hand immediately.

"It's about time!" Louis examined the two letters and tossed Ren's on the floor.

He tore open the letter and glued his eyes to it.

A/N: Suspense, suspense, suspense. . .tell me what you think!


	3. Stevenson House

**Stevenson House**

"Ready to go?" Louis' mom asked on Monday, as the group of 8th graders stood outside the four buses, waiting as their luggage was packed.

"Yeah," Louis replied. "I've got _everything_."

"So when do we tell each other if we're the murderers?" Tom asked, having apparently decided to get in on the pact.

Twitty shrugged. "I dunno. Hey, Lou, is that a water gun sticking out of your bad?"

"Oh, uh, yeah," Louis said, glancing at Mrs. Stevens. He pushed the fake pistol into his bag and zipped it up. "I just thought it would be a good surprise for our little murderer."

"Sweet!" Twitty laughed. "Let's get on the bus before we get murdered trying to catch up with it." He recalled chasing Tawny's limo back in 7th grade as a result of their prank calling.

"Yeah," Tawny laughed. "We'd better go."

"Bye, Mom!" Ren called as she checked each student as they boarded the buses.

After the long and easy goodbyes, Louis, Tawny, Twitty, Tom, and Allison rushed onto the bus to get the best seats in the back.

"All right people!" Ren said as she stepped up to the front of the bus. "May I have you're attention please?"

The chatting continued.

She cleared her throat loudly. "May I have you're attention please?"

Nothing happened. With a sigh, Ren put her fingers in her mouth and blew the loudest whistle anyone had ever heard.

The bus was silent.

"Thank you." Ren smiled and sighed of relief. "Now, there are a few rules I'd like to run through before we leave."

She unrolled a piece of paper that must have been at least two feet long.

Ignoring Ren's rule reading, Louis whispered to Twitty, who sat next to him, "We'll tell everyone tonight when everybody else is asleep."

He seems pretty excited.

Twitty nodded, and passed the message to Allison.

"And that concludes the rules," Ren finished about ten minutes later. "Now, I just have to deliver the rules to the other buses, and then we can go!"

Everyone on the bus groaned.

>>>>

"Wow."

Stevenson House was one of the tiniest mansions Louis had ever seen.

"We're staying in this tiny shack?" He asked, annoyed. "What about all the descriptions from people? One of the biggest houses in the state? This place barely looks as big as my house!"

"Louis, relax!" Ren said. "Don't judge it. We haven't even gone inside."

"_Ahem_," came a soft voice.

A short, plump woman, who wore a blue sundress, stepped outside of the house and stood proudly on the porch.

"Welcome to Stevenson House!" She exclaimed in a voice that sounded like she'd sucked in a whole gallon of helium. "I'm Miss Pateer! I'll be your guide this week."

"This is going to be a long week," Louis whispered to Twitty.

"Oh don't worry, Love, the luggage will be taken care of," Miss Pateer said as Ren bent down to pick up her suitcase.

"Okay," Ren smiled.

"Now!" Miss Pateer grinned. "If you'll all follow me, I can show you around the house."

Everyone stepped onto the porch, groaning, because they figured what would be inside, considering the looks of the outer house.

They were wrong.

When Miss Pateer opened the door, they were in awe.

The front hall was glorious! There was a bright crystal chandelier that hung gracefully about the long and spiral staircase, which went up at least three floors. On the left, there was a medium-sized room that looked to be a gift shop, with all sorts of cases lining the walls. In the middle of room were shelves holding old things, probably artifacts, and typical souvenirs. Everything seemed to need a bit of dusting.

Everyone stepped into the large parlor.

"Wow, from the looks outside it seems like this is magic," Allison said.

"Yeah," Tawny agreed. "Magic."

They were so busy admiring the glorious house, that they didn't notice Miss Pateer's smile fade, almost into a frown, as she shut the front door and locked it with a big, far-from-undoable looking latch.

>>>>

"Now, children!" Miss Pateer smiled. "This is our head butler Francis and our cook Sophie."

Two very stiff figures emerged from the dusk of the kitchen. They were dressed in black.

"The looks are just supposed to freak you out," Louis whispered to Twitty.

The tour began.

They walked through all different rooms upstairs, and downstairs. There seemed to be thousands almost, and every time you looked down a hallway, turned around, then looked at it again, it seemed to have changed one way or another.

One by one, Miss Pateer assigned people their rooms. When she was finished, she turned to the group and smiled.

"Now, if you'll follow me, I'll show you the kitchen," Miss Pateer said, grinning even more.

"Lame," Twitty said under his breath.

"Follow me," Louis said.

They tiptoed away from the group and began walking a hallway they'd been in earlier, although it seemed to be different, different wallpaper or something, but something definitely had changed.

"So," Twitty said, casually leaning again the wall. "What should we do now?"

His question was answered when the wall he was leaning on fell backwards, or _moved _backwards. The wall was opening!

"What the—"

"Wow," Louis said. "It's a secret passageway or something."

"Let's see where it goes," Twitty said.

Louis nodded, and stuck his foot in. He felt the floor, so took hold of a wall that hadn't moved, and put the other foot in too. There was a dim light far, far ahead of him.

"Come on, dude," he said to Twitty. "Let's see where it goes."

Twitty stuck a foot in as Louis moved forward, but stopped with a shrill scream as someone grabbed his shoulder.


	4. The Murderer of Stevenson House

A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Sorry it took me so long to update. Here's Chapter Four.

**The Murderer of Stevenson House**

"What do you think you're doing?" Came Miss Pateer's voice.

"Oh," Twitty sighed of relief. "It's you."

"Uh, sorry, Miss uh, Pateer," Louis said as innocently as possible. "Well, you see, me and my friend here, we, well, got lost and we fell back into this here hole." He stared over his shoulder. "We're sorry."

"Hmph," Miss Pateer let out, in a rather deeper voice than usual. "Well, who are you again?"

"I'm Louis and this is—"

"No, I mean what are your character's names?" Miss Pateer's voice was stern.

"Oh, well, I'm uh, Darnell Finster," Twitty remembered.

"And I'm Clarence McDorman," Louis added plainly.

"Ah, well, Darnell and Clarence," Miss Pateer smiled slyly, "we've got the perfect room for you."

>>>>

"Uh, where are the other guys?" Louis asked as Miss Pateer led them out of the hallway they'd been in. He looked behind him once again, so fast though, that he could have sworn the hole had just sealed itself.

There was no time to confirm it though. Miss Pateer, who had been accompanied by the strange butler, was briskly hustling them down a different hallway, and stopped at a door. She opened it, and stared inside, smiling.

She opened it wider, revealing a dark, musty looking staircase, which looked so narrow, that barely two people could stand side by side, or even one for the matter.

"Uh, what exactly are we supposed to do?" Louis asked.

Miss Pateer nodded her head. "Go on up."

"Up there?" Louis asked, glancing up the dark stairwell. "Well, you know what? I think I liked the other rooms better, so why don't we just get out of your way, and—"

The butler let out a soft, but solid grunt as Louis tried to slip past him. He grabbed his shoulder.

"Or, maybe not," Louis finished.

He glanced once again up the stairwell.

Twitty gulped rather loudly.

Soon, they found themselves on the stairs, going up, and up. It never seemed to end, and it was pitched black, but the two boys could hear Miss Pateer's soft breathing as she supervised them like a hawk.

Finally, they came to another door, and Miss Pateer opened it. Suddenly, her smile reappeared.

"Welcome to your new home," she said, cheerfully opening the door.

Inside was something Louis and Twitty would have never expected.

"Mother of pearl." Louis' breath was taken away by what he saw before him.

It must have been a dream. The room reminded Louis of "The Little Princess," where the man turned the little girl's room into a beautiful, fantastic bedroom, with all the food and comfort she'd need.

"On second thought," Louis added brightly, "this'll do just fine, thank you."

"Good," Miss Pateer smiled sweetly, and slammed the door behind her.

The second the door was slammed, everything in the room began to change. The color of the walls got darker, and darker. The beds began to look a bit more shabbier, and there was a click heard behind the door.

"That sounds just for scare," Louis laughed. "You know, just to freak us out and make us think she's actually locked us in this place.

Just for reassurance, Twitty scuttled quickly over to the door and pulled the knob over and over again.

"Uh, dude, she locked us in," he said, breathing hard.

>>>>

"Do you guys know where Louis and Twitty went?" Tawny asked, as she looked around the gift shop on the first floor.

"No clue," Tom replied. "I hope they're okay."

"Knowing Alan and Louis. . ." Allison added.

"Yeah," Tawny sniggered, "but I am still a bit worried."

"Hmm." Tom checked out some postcards on the panel that stood awkwardly near the cash register. "I could send Doris one of these."

He held one up that had a picture of a ghoul-looking figure standing strangely tall in front of Stevenson House, and pushed it in Tawny's face.

"Oh, ew!" Tawny shrieked, pushing the postcard away. "Who—_what _is that?"

"Ah, I'll tell you," Miss Pateer's voice interupted. "Let me tell you the story of Stevenson House."

"You've _showed_ us enough," Allison mumbled under her breath, looking a bit disgusted.

"Oh, no, you have yet to see some, other, some _different_, things soon enough," Miss Pateer smiled wickedly. "Now, listen closely."

The group gathered into the parlor, where they'd entered the house, and seated themselves on the sofas and armchairs. Some sat on the floor, too eager, because they wanted to hear the story.

Miss Pateer seated herself on the railing of the banister. "This house was built in 1906, when Henry Stevenson moved here from Louisiana. His family was extremely wealthy. He was a merchant, but inherited most of his fortune from his great-grandfather Arnold Stevenson, who was a successful banker. Henry and his wife Clarice used most of the family fortune to settle here in California, and built this outrageously large house. People thought of it as a waste of money, especially one man in particular."

"Who was it?" One of the boys asked.

"Jacob Schemer," Miss Pateer replied dryly. "And his personality fit his name, it sure did."

The room was silent.

"A few months after moving here, Henry and Clarice gave birth to a child, a beautiful little girl named Eleanor. Now Jacob Schemer, who still thought that the family had wasted their money, had been planning a little something to get at them. He _wanted_ their money, as a matter of fact, so he could show them what happens when you show _off_ your money." There was a sense of anger in Miss Pateer's voice. "They had locks on their doors and windows, but little 'ol Jake knew better. He had somehow found this, secret passage."

She stopped in mid sentence, then continued. "And got into Eleanor's bedroom, while she was asleep late at night. He grabbed her, planning to use her kidnapping to make a ransom, but she screamed, very loud surprisingly. I woke her mother Clarice, who was asleep down the hall. Jake grabbed his knife that he always carried around, and tried to run, but Eleanor squirmed so much that he dropped her in his hurry. Such a little baby she was, and couldn't survive the fall. Her bones weren't developed enough. Now Clarice had come in, and seen this. She screamed, and in his sudden surprise of her presence, Jake accidentally flung the knife and—" Miss Pateer stopped there, and wiped a tear that had formed in the corner of her eye. "If it really _was_ an accident, I don't know."

She took in a deep breath. "Henry ran into the room, and being the strong man he was, wrestled the knife from Jake and killed him right there. You would consider that defense, maybe, or anger, but no matter what it was, he was sent to jail, and died there, without so much as a trial."

There was silence in the large parlor. Everyone was in shock.


	5. Questions Asked, No Answers

A/N: I would have updated sooner, but I was really busy. Thanks for the reviews though, and here's Chapter Five. 

**Questions Asked, No Answers**

"Do you think that story's really true?" Allison asked later that night as they sat down to dinner in the great hall. "There couldn't have actually been a-murder here."

"I don't know," Tawny sighed, "and seriously, I'm really worrying about Louis and Twitty! Something isn't right, and we're not doing anything about it!"

"If you're that worried, let's just go ask someone about it," Allison suggested. "I'm sure they're just exploring somewhere and trying to drive us nuts as well."

"Well, we should ask."

The two girls stood up and decided to try the kitchen, where the cook, Sophie was busy preparing more food for the hungry teenagers. Sophie apparently was the only adult around at the moment.

"Excuse us, Sophie?" Tawny asked hesitantly.

"What'd you want?" She demanded, in a rather southern accent, something the girls wouldn't have expected.

"We-we were just w-wondering i-if you knew where our friends were," Allison added hurriedly.

"No." The answer was gruff.

Tawny and Allison rolled their eyes.

"Are you sure, Sophie?" Tawny asked. "Because they've been missing, and we meant to ask Miss Pateer—"

"NO!" Sophie bellowed. "And it's Miss Dunlap to you!"

"Sorry, Mi-Miss Dunlap," Tawny replied meekly. She took a step away from Sophie. "Sorry we bothered you."

When they came back into the great hall, all of the faces of the once chewing kids, were staring wide-eyed at Tawny and Allison, having heard Sophie's yelling.

"What was that about?" A boy name Ryan asked Tawny as she took her seat.

"Oh, oh nothing," she replied as casually as possible. "Soph—Miss Dunlap, is just having a bad day. That's all."

"Whatever." Ryan went back to his dinner plate.

>>>>

"Seriously, how the heck are we supposed to get out of here?" Twitty brushed back some of his hair and quickly eyed the room he and Louis were trapped in.

The room was a pale, paint peeling pink, with an old looking crib, which was made of chipped white wood. There were dust-covered objects sprawled out on a musty wooden floor. The objects were hard to make out though.

"Hey, check this out." Louis kneeled.

There was a spot on the room where it was clear and in fact, shiny.

Louis examined it, and realized that on the spot, there was a small, small body tracing made out of masking tape. It was so tiny.

"Hmm, must be part of the murder mystery," he said, smiling. He stood up. "So, how are we supposed to get out of here?"

Twitty shrugged. "I dunno, Lou."

"Oh, I've got an idea," Louis replied casually heading toward the locked door.

After tugging at the knob one more time, he began pounding on the door, yelling and screaming.

"HELP, HELP, HELP!" He yelled, and Twitty joined in.

>>>>

"Do you hear something?" Tawny asked Allison.

The room the two girls were sharing was near the room where Louis and Twitty were being held hostage.

Allison shrugged. "It sounds like—screaming?"

"I knew I didn't like violence." Tom appeared at their doorway. He shivered. "What do you think? Shall we, investigate?" He emphasized this sentence with a little karate action.

Tawny grinned. "I wouldn't say that, Tom, but I do think we should ask Miss Pateer. If we can even find her."

Taking in a deep breath, she, Allison, and Tom ventured out of the room and into the long hallway, which again, seemed to have changed one way or the other since the last time they'd gotten a good look at it.

Quietly tip-toeing down the flights of stairs, they ran into some friends here and there, but had no time to chat. No one had seen Miss Pateer lately, and this made them feel a sliver ofsuspicion.

"Miss Pateer?" Allison asked as the trio stepped down the last flight of stairs into the parlor.

"Yes, darling?" A high voice answered from one of the large sofas.

"Hi," Tawny began, reaching the bottom of the steps. "Um, we were just wondering, have you seen our friends? They disappeared and we're really worried about what happened to them."

A worried expression appeared on Miss Pateer's face. "When's the last time you saw them?"

"Well, a few minutes into the tour. I think they may have gotten lost in one of those long hallways."

"Well don't you worry, love," Miss Pateer replied, standing up. "I'll alert the staff and we'll be on the lookout. I'm very close to my associates. Now, you three had better get off to bed. The mystery starts tomorrow."

"Okay, thank you," Allison uneasily.

They turned on their heels and headed up the stairs, and Tawny noticed that Miss Pateer didn't seem to budge. She merrily smiled and sat back down.

Puzzled she shook her head and caught up with Allison and Tom.

"What was that?" Tawny asked.

Allison shrugged.

"I hope I can get to sleep tonight," Tom sighed, "We were supposed to reveal whetheror not we werethe murderer."

"Oh yeah, I'd forgotten all about that," Tawny said. "It'll just have to wait."

"Are you sure the boys might just be in their room?"

"I already checked," Tom replied, yawning. "Well, I'd better try toget some sleep. Goodnight, all."

Tawny and Allison back mumbled their goodnights, and headed further into the house to their bedroom.

>>>>

"Well, this'll be fun," Twitty said, brushing at a piece of dust that had landed on his nose. "Spending a whole week, locked in some room!"

Louis rubbed his knuckles, which had gotten soar from pounding on the door so much. "I wish Ren were here."

"What did you just say?"

"Well, she's supposed to make sure we all have fun, and she's not doing a great job of it at the moment," Louis huffed.

Twitty shrugged. "Too bad."

"Yep."

"I wonder what the other guys are doing right now," Twitty wondered aloud.

"Probably snoozing, or trying to. They're all excited for the murder mystery to start."

"Oh that's right!" Twitty exclaimed. "We were supposed to tell each other our characters."

"Oh, what the heck?" Louis replied, leaning in. "Are you the murderer, Alan Twitty?"

"Not that I know of," Twitty smiled slyly, "and you?"

Louis began to answer, but was interrupted by a high wailing noise.

"Ahh!"

"What was that?"

"I don't know," Louis said, breathing deeply.

A pair of footsteps were heard on the staircase to the room.


	6. The Third Floor

A/N: Please don't kill me. I know I haven't updated forever, and the truth is, I have absolutely no excuse, other than I was out of ideas. Well, anyway, my mind is refueled, and I do have a good plot for the story now, so I'm back in business! 

**The Third Floor**

"Okay, children!" Miss Pateer's voice rang throughout the halls. "It's time for the mystery to start! Come on, gather round, please."

Everyone squeezed into a space on the sofas and armchairs.

"Now." Miss Pateer smiled, standing in the center of the room. "If you're the murderer, you know who you are. But you must keep your identity a complete secret. Don't let anyone find out. That's your job during your stay here. For the rest of you, your job is to keep from being murdered, and figure out who the murderer is. If you do so, you will be greeted with a pleasant treat, which is of course, yet another secret."

"And for us, it's whoever finds Louis and Alan," Allison whispered to Tawny, who nodded in reply.

"Well, is everyone in costume?" Miss Pateer surveyed the room. "The murder mystery has officially begun! Be sure to walk around in groups, if not partners."

"So, are we groupmates?" Tom laughed, putting his arms playfully around Tawny and Allison.

"Sure, Tom," Tawny replied, gently removing Tom's arm from her shoulder.

"Okay, I say we take the third floor," Allison suggested. "Everyone else isstarting on the first and second."

"Good idea," Tawny replied.

They made their way up the creaky flights of stairs and found themselves in the dark, creepy hallways of the third floor.

"Do you see any clues?" Allison whispered.

"Not really," Tawny said. "What kind of clues are we looking for?"

"Well, I'm not a Sherlock Holmes clone, but I do recall Miss Pateer talking about the death of a baby. So how about looking for something like a pacifier?"

"That's brilliant, Tom!" Allison replied. "But wait, wasn't that just the background fictional story?"

"Who knows?" Tawny sighed. "There's always a chance that it could betied in somehow."

"I guess so. It isa murder mystery, after all."

"Okay, I say we split up," Tawny decided. "We'll cover more ground up here before other people come to investigate."

"Okay," Tom agreed. "But I propose I go alone. I havebeen polishing my karate moves lately, and I thought it would be fun to try them out. I wouldn't want you ladies getting hurt. Best stay together."

"Whatever," Tawny smiled. "Let's meet back at this old mirror in about 15 to 20 minutes. This floor is huge! That has to be enough time to search it all."

Tom nodded. He turned on his heel and marched in the other direction. Tawny and Allison headed further down the hall opposite of Tom.

"It's too dark. We should have brought a flashlight," Allison complained.

"Yeah, but there's enough light to see right in front of our faces, at least," Tawny told her. "Just stay near thewall. We should be able to find something."

They tiptoed further into the darkness, and as the light grew dimmer and dimmer, they grew more discouraged.

"Ouch!"

"What's wrong?" Allison blindlyreached for Tawny's arm.

"I stepped on something sharp. Oh great, I think it cut through my shoe."

Allison found Tawny's arm and bentas best as she could to feel around the sole of Tawny's shoe. Toward the middle, she felt something sharp stickingstraight out.

"It's some sort of needle," Allison observed. "Oh, it must have been sticking right out of the carpet. That's got to have hurt. Hold on, I'll get it."

With a little grunt, Allison pulled the sharp object out of Tawny's shoe, and examined it in her fingers.

"It looks like a sewing needle," she reported. "I've helped my aunt sew so many clothes when I'm with her, that all I need to do is feel anysewing tool to know what it is."

Tawny giggled. "Well, would you consider this a clue, or just something a seamstress dropped?"

"Do you think this place has a seamstress?" Allison wondered.

"It may have in the past. And if so, they didn't do a good job of cleaning up this place."

"Yeah."Allison squinted into the darkness. "You think they'd clean it up a bit before opening it to the public."

"It would help," Tawny laughed. "Anyway, what do you think?"

"I don't know if this would be a clue," Allison said, eyeing the needle as best as she could. "Do you think it would have a note that would advertise it or something? 'Congratulations! You've found a clue!' Something likethat would be helpful."

"Well, I think this is one of those hard-core mysteries, where it's all up to you," Tawny replied.

Allison sighed. "I was afraid of that. This sucks. I wish they would have given us more information on this game before we started."

"Tell me about it," Toni added. "We can ask Miss Pateer for help later. Now let's think about it: we're going to assume that a seamstress worked here, making clothes for someone, or the whole family."

"So how would that be tied in?" Allison wondered aloud.

"I have no idea," Toni said. "Let's go find Tom. I'll bet he can come up with something!"

"Yeah," Allison agreed, smiling.

As if speaking his name has cued him, Tom's scream rang about the hall.

"Uh oh," Allison muttered.

"Let's go!" Tawny took off at a sprint, despite the darkness surrounding her. "Tom, where are you?"

"Over here!" Came Tom's scared voice.

Tawny ran forward, bumping headfirst into something.

"Ouch, that sure hit the spot," came Tom's voice again.

"Oh, Tom, I'm so sorry!" Toni exclaimed.

"Quite all right," Tom replied. "Happens all the time."

"Okay," Tawny said slowly. "Well, why the heck were you screaming?"

As if the question bared a thousand knifes, Tom jumped back in horror.

"There is something behind this wall," he said, pointing behind him. "I know I heard something!"

Tawny stared at the wallTom was leaning against. It had nothing on it, except old, peeling wallpaper.

"Tell me this isn't a clue," Tom pleaded. "If it is, I'm never going to a murdery mystery house like this again!"

"Sorry, Tom," Toni said, "but I think it is."


	7. The Secret Passage

A/N: I should update more often. I've had a lot on my mind, so I really haven't had any time. But, now I've got the whole evening ahead of me and I'm not wasting it watching TV! 

**The Secret Passage**

"Have you ever seen one of those movies where the people are trapped inside that small, steel room, and then the only way out is a passage?" Louis asked out of the blue.

"Uh, I dunno. I guess. Probably," Twitty replied.

"Well, maybe there's one in here, too," Louis said, examining the room with one wide eye.

He began banging on all the walls. "Come on, man, feel for something hollow."

"Uh, right." Twitty awkwardly began to tap on the walls.

"Hey! I think I've got something." Louis repeated a bang on the wall.

He was squatted on the floor, and continued his knocking. It sounded like knocking on an empty cardboard box.

"I think there's something behind here," he got excited. "Now all we've got to dofind is a door."

"Uh, dude," Twitty pointed to the wall next to the spot where Louis was kneeling.

On the wall was a white, dusty vent that looked like it hadn't been opened in ages.

"Uh, I saw that." Louis stated, letting out a nervous giggle.

He carefully, but hesitantly, placed his fingers around the edge of the vent door, and pulled with all of his might. At first the covering wouldn't budge, but then it finally let go, accompanied by an unpleasant creak that hurt like nails on a chalkboard.

Twitty knelt down beside his friend and waved his hand at some cobwebs that lined the inside of the vent. "Ew, do we actually have to go inside here?"

"Oh, come on, it's just like the movies!" Louis exclaimed.

With that, he crawled inside the large, black hole and didn't bother waiting for his friend to catch up with him.

Through the opening, just as expected, was a long, pitched-black tunnel. It reminded Louis of the tunnel he'd dug with his dad to find that treasure. But they had had flashlights.

Louis seemed to zoom right through the tunnel, but Twitty was a little more careful. He felt his way around, and winced when it came to a cobweb. He never remembered being this afraid of things before. Something was strange.

Suddenly, the tunnel changed directions. Since Louis was far ahead, Twitty had to yell for him to hear him.

"Hey, Lou, where do you think this goes?" He shouted.

His voice echoed off the narrow walls.

"Twitty, dude, BE QUIET!" Louis whispered as loud as he could, almost out of earshot. "Who knows who could hear us"

So Twitty sealed his mouth just as the tunnel changed directions, but this time, instead of turning, it went down. Twitty hesitated again, but then started forward. The floor of the passage was so slippery with webs that Twitty ended up sliding down. His franticly felt for something to hang on to, and just found something that faintly resembled the feeling of a rope on the side, but then before he knew it, his head was jammed into Louis' (A/N: How should I say this?) bottom.

At least the tunnel was level again.

"Oh, man, that hurt" Twitty muttered below his breath. He rubbed his head.

Louis didn't seem to feel a thing. "I think we're almost there."

Twitty was not sure of where "there" was, but he just nodded and continued crawling.

>>>>

Tawny had a vague idea of what the wall could represent, but her thoughts were interrupted, yet encouraged, when she heard a small bang behind it.

"Oh man, that hurt" came a familiar voice from inside.

"That's Alan!" Allison exclaimed.

Without even responding, Tawny pressed her hands against the wall and followed the thumping from inside.

After turning one more corner, the tunnel stopped abruptly, so suddenly, that Louis almost collided with the wall.

"Now what do we do?" Twitty asked from behind.

"Allow me!" came Tawny's voice.

"Huh?" Louis was startled as the wall was pushed into him, and light poured into the tunnel.

Tawny's head appeared above him.

"Tawny! You came and saved us!" Louis scrambled out of the tunnel and wrapped Tawny in a hug.

"Um, yeah," she said awkwardly as Louis released her.

"You know, I'm here too." Twitty stated as he got out of the tunnel.

He quickly looked around. "This place looks familiar."

He stared at the wall he'd just come through. "Louis, this is that one wall we almost went into."

Louis observed the wall. "Hey, you're right."

"Um, what are you guys talking about?" Tawny asked.

"Miss Pateer locked us into a room that was like, on the fourth floor!" Twitty exclaimed.

"There is no fourth floor," Tom cut in.

"You know, there could be," Allison remarked. "Like how during the Holocaust, houses had an extra floor that people hid in, but it looked like it didn't have it. This house looks like it could."

"Yeah, and it looked like a baby's room."

"Baby's room?" Tawny asked slowly.

She stared in horror at Allison and Tom.

"Yeah, so?" Louis demanded.

"You never heard the story," Allison replied.

The three friends grabbed Louis and Twitty's arms and dragged them back to the girls' room.

The third girl the room was shared with, wasn't there, so Tawny shut and locked the door.

"Baby's room, secret passage." She continued repeating this over and over again.

Tom quickly filled Louis and Twitty in on the story of the murderer Jake Schemer.

Twitty flinched. "Oh, man, we were in a room where someone died?"

"More than one person," Tom added.

"You know, Miss Pateer mentioned a secret passageway that Jake used. And she seemed to regret it when she said it. I think she's hiding something," Tawny said.

"Like we didn't already know that?" Allison asked.

"But there's still one problem," Twitty said. "How could Jake have gotten inside of the house? The passage stopped at the wall inside of the hallway. And I think we would have noticed a change in the tunnel's direction that led to the outside."

"So maybe he sneaked inside of the house while the family was away. I've heard of a lot of murderers doing that, and hiding until the family falls asleep," Tom answered, "but there's always the possibility of there being another passage."

"Maybe we'd better check it out," Louis said, standing up.

"But what about Miss Pateer?" Tawny asked. "She thinks you guys are still locked in Eleanor's room."

"We can avoid her," Louis said proudly.

"I know you've gotten out of things worse than this, so—" Tawny began.

Shuffling feet that halted at the door interrupted her.

"They've escaped?" came Miss Pateer's voice. "Oh, they can't run far. We'll find the little youngsters."

Louis half expected the feet to walk away, but they stayed put at the girls' door. He gulped. "Oh, no."

A/N: Again, I'm sorry I didn't update sooner, but I will try to get the next chapter posted ASAP. Please review!


	8. Close Call

A/N: Sorry it took so long to update! My schedule has been swamped, but I finally got there!

**Close Call**

The footsteps were planted. Louis took in a deep breath, but as soon as he did he knew it was too loud. Miss Pateer's short, sharp breaths paused for a moment. The doorknob began to turn.

"Quick! Under the bed," Tawny shoved the comforter aside to reveal the underside of Allison's bed.

Louis dove under the bed before Twitty could make a move. He frantically looked for a place to hide and scampered across the room to the closet, shutting the door seconds before the door to the hall opened.

Miss Pateer's bulky body took up all the space in the doorframe. Sophie, the cook, stood huffing behind her. She looked as if she'd just run a mile. Her graying hair was falling loose from a bun. It was then that Tawny noticed her lazy eye.

Miss Pateer's face was very red, her chest was heaving. But then as if by magic, the redness was replaced with a peach-like, but white-colored glowing face. Her soon-to-be-famous smirk spread across her face.

"Children," she spoke quickly. "Have you seen your two friends Darnell and Clarence?"

"Darnell and Clarence?" Tawny raised an eyebrow.

"You know, Luke. . . and what's the other's name?"

"Oh!" Tom exclaimed. "You mean Lou—"

He was interrupted when Tawny slapped her hand across his mouth.

"Yeah!" She continued. "Our friends."

"But if I recall," Allison stepped in. "We were asking you the same question."

She gave the short woman a detective-like look.

"Oh. . . of course!" Miss Pateer stuttered. "I just wanted to know if you'd spotted, well, found them yet."

By this time Tawny had uncovered Tom's mouth.

"Why? Are they lost?" He asked. "It's a mighty big house. They could be anywhere."

"Hmm."

Tawny shot a quick glance at the closet door, but out of the corner of her eye, she saw Miss Pateer's eyes start to survey the room.

Sophie cleared her throat. "I think I'd better help some kids unpack downstairs. There's a lot to hang up in the closet."

Miss Pateer took the hint. She began walking slowly toward the closet. What Tawny, Allison and Tom hadn't noticed, was that there were two closets. And Miss Pateer was walking toward the one Twitty was not in.

She had a sly look on her face and she inched closer and closer to the closet. The three teens tried to keep solemn looks on their faces.

With what seemed like the speed of light, Miss Pateer flung open the door and peered inside. The closet was bare. It was then she noticed the other closet.

"Oh," she said turning. "I thought I had a rat in there." She emphasized the word "rat."

She casually brushed something invisible off the front pocket of her blouse as she began stepping toward the second closet. "Maybe it's in here."

She had her hand on the knob. This was it.

Suddenly, someone sneezed, and not just anyone. It came from under one of the beds.

Miss Pateer's head turned abruptly. The smirk returned. She began walking alongside the opposite wall of the beds, away from the closet.

"Are you sure you haven't seen your friends?" She asked, in a matter-of- fact type way.

"P-Positive," Tom managed to choke out. He had begun to start quivering.

Miss Pateer frowned. Without warning, she marched over to the bed, leaned over, and whipped up the covers.

Tawny swallowed a scream. She closed her eyes; ready for the evil laugh she'd heard in too many horror movies.

"Humph." Miss Pateer murmured. "Drat."

Bewildered, Tawny bent over a bit to see Louis sneaking out from under the bed, behind Miss Pateer's back. He quickly crawled quietly under the other bed.

"Well, if you see them, tell them we've been looking for 'em!" With that, Miss Pateer pranced out of the room.

Tawny let out a deep sigh that she'd been holding for about a minute. She quickly got to the door and shut it before pushing her back against it. "She doesn't know your real names."

"So?"

"That could go to our advantage, Louis," Tawny replied hotly. "It means she has a lesser chance of finding you when most people are going to talk about you using your real name. I don't think she even knows my real name!"

"That women is mad," Allison said. "We need to do something."

"Like what?" Twitty asked, opening the closet door. "Do you except our parents to believe us if we tell them what happened? They'll think it's a practical joke."

"Not if we've got Tom with us," Allison remarked. "Everyone trusts him."

"Even if that's true—" Tawny started.

"We don't have a phone."

"But, Allison, I thought you did."

"I know," Allison sighed, "but if my mother hadn't kept telling me she'd call every day to make sure I was okay, I would have brought it."

A giggle escaped from Louis.

"Smooth move," he muttered.

"So what are we going to do?" Tom asked. "There could be someone out to get us, and now we'll never see our parents again, we'll never see our school, we're all going to be eaten by flying squirrels—"

"Tom!" Twitty cut him off. "Just. . .shut up. Please."

"Sorry," Tom laughed. "I tend to a bit excited when there's, you know, a MURDERER on the loose."

"What makes you think that?" Tawny asked. "I mean, what's-his-face was killed by Henry Stevenson, remember? If there was still a murderer here, it would have to be a ghost."

"And there's no such thing," Allison added cheerfully. "There's no murderer, Tom."

"Fine, I'll let you think on that for awhile, but until you come up with proof that Miss Pateer isn't hiding something, I'm on the lookout!" Tom stated superiorly.

"We should talk to Ren," Twitty spoke up. "I mean, she's the High School Helper. She'll believe us. She believed us when we thought Beans was an alien."

"And found out we were wrong!" Louis yelled. "No way is she gonna believe us! We've got to do this our way."

"And what's our way?" Tawny asked.

"A night job," Louis replied.

It was dark. The hallways were lit with only the dim lights coming from under the doors to all the bedrooms on that floor.

Louis, Tawny, Twitty, Allison, and Tom slowly crept through the hallway. They could hear someone snoring in one of the bedrooms as they passed it, and some other girls laughing and gossiping in the room across from it.

Tawny felt the walls until she came to an opening, the staircase.

"Be really careful," she whispered. "Any one of these old steps can creak."

They slowly lowered themselves onto the first step, about two people at a time, and began to descend the old stairwell.

Tom lacked closeness to the group in no time. He was being extra careful, surveying each step, putting a bit of weight on it to make sure it didn't creak. Too bad it didn't turn out that well.

"Tom! Come on!" Louis hissed. "You're going to get caught!"

Exasperated he marched back up few a steps and grabbed Tom's arm, pulling him down two steps at a time. He soon regretted it, though.

The second Louis and Tom set foot on the last step behind Tawny and Allison, it let out the loudest creak, so loud that Tawny had to plug her ears, hoping that would block out the sound for everyone in the house. Of course—it was the opposite.

"Who's there?" Came one of the butler's voices.

"Run!" Louis yelled, immediately being slapped in the face by Tawny.

"Shut up!" she yelled, but followed as the group stumbled down the last dozen steps.

They rounded the corner at the end of the banister and dove behind the desk in the gift shop. Not long after did they hear the steps of the butler, creaking at the bottom of the stairs, and it was pretty obvious he was looking for them.

Tawny put her fingers to her lips and everyone held their breath. They were forced to quickly exhale when the butler yelled, "Show yourself!"

_He thinks it's just one person_, Tawny thought.

She pushed Twitty out from behind the counter and quickly whispered instructions to him.

"Uh, hi!" Twitty smiled, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "I was uh, looking for my favorite. . .book. Yeah, my book. I think I left it down here. Uh. . ." He looked around the room, trying to find anything that resembled a book.

It was hard, though. He could feel the deathly stare of the creepy butler.

"Oh, there it is!" Twitty exclaimed, grabbing some large book from under the coffee table.

"A photo album?" The butler's cruel expression disappeared a bit as he raised an eyebrow, but the toughness remained.

"Um, yeah. Every picture's worth a thousand words and I'm a heavy reader, so. . .goodnight!" Twitty ran past the butler and darted up the stairs.

The butler grunted a turned his head toward the gift shop, where the strange young boy had emerged from.

Tawny peered around the counter and saw the butler was looking in their direction, but over the desk, and was still at his spot in the hallway.

The butler slowly began to walk into the room, his head tilted to the side a bit, as if he was listening for something like—

"Hold your breath!" Tawny mouthed.

It was too dark to see her mouth, but everyone knew what she meant.

Tom looked behind him and saw something dark towering over him. He cowered into Louis' side, but soon realized that it was a the inside of a door. Maybe it was a storage room.

He tapped everyone's hand and began to crawl into the room, feeling everything around him to make sure he didn't knock anything over. Everyone followed him, until they were safely inside. The butler was still there, but now he couldn't see them at all.

The only bad thing about this situation was that. . .

They were trapped.


	9. Identical Faces

A/N: I'm sorry. The last time I updated was in May, and it's now August. I've been busy starting school and getting used to the work again, but now I finally got time to write. I've been trying to continue my two "Harry Potter" stories, but I keep getting sidetracked. Anyway, thanks for the reviews! I was reading over the first few chapters of this story, and well. . .they kind of stink. So I'm thinking of revising them later. And I think some small details from earlier in the story aren't agreeing with later details. But for now, here's the next chapter and I hope you enjoy it!

**Identical Faces**

. . .they were trapped.

Even Louis, as goofy as he was, was completely freaked out by the looks of this butler. He could pass for a zombie, just standing there. It was as if he knew they were there, but he didn't bother to acknowledge them at all. The suspense stirred up some mixed feelings about the different escape routes that might be available.

Tom was completely shaking, and although they were in a dark room, they knew he was because the floor was shaking slightly. No one dared to speak, it seemed so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. The butler took another step further into the gift shop. Everyone held their breath.

"Um, excuse me."

Louis, Tawny, Tom, and Allison jerked their heads in the direction of the voice. The butler finally turned his back and left the room.

"What can I help you with, miss?"

"Oh, I just needed to find this small, yellow folder I'd been carrying earlier. It had all of my plans inside it. Have you seen one?"

"Ren," Louis muttered.

He slowly crept out of the room they'd been hiding in and peered around the desk. He could just see the back of Ren's head. By the sound of her voice he could tell that the butler spooked her too.

"I believe I have," the butler said slowly.

This statement was followed by the sound of distinct footsteps walking across the parlor to where the couches were. Then they came back the spot where's Ren's silhouette was.

"Oh, thank you!" Ren laughed. "Um, I'd better get back to my room. We've got a busy day tomorrow."

"Goodnight, miss," the butler said, and two pairs of feet went back up the stairs.

Still, no one spoke. It seemed like five minutes before Tawny asked, "Can anyone find a light switch?"

Louis, who was closest to the doorway, felt his way up the nearest wall until he felt something square. He found the middle of the square and flicked on the switch. After everyone's eyes had adjusted to the light, they looked around. They seemed to be in a storage room after all. There were black shelves lining the walls.

"So, do you think it's safe to go back upstairs?" Tawny asked.

"I think we should lay low here for a bit," Allison said.

She seemed nervous, and started to take in a big breath. As soon as she inhaled, she threw a coughing fit and wrinkled her nose. "Ugh! It smells like mothballs in here!"

"Not surprising," Tom said in his "superior voice." "The stuff in here must be pretty old. It's probably antiques they haven't displayed in the gift shop yet."

"You know in those old movies, where they always hide something good in the boiler room?" Louis asked. "That would be so cool if it was something like that here!"

Tawny rolled her eyes.

"There's nothing like that in here," she remarked, standing up. She looked around the small room. "There're only dusty boxes, photo albums. . ."

She picked one of the albums from the shelf. Allison stood up too and continued to survey the room. Tawny opened the album to the middle of it and blew the dust away.

Louis coughed and waved at the dust as it fell all over his head.

"Eh! Ugh, Tawny, try to be more careful." He said, annoyed.

Tawny ignored him, she was looking through the album. "This is really old."

Tom stood up and looked over Tawny's shoulder at the page she had turned to. All the photos were in black and white, and had turned a pale yellow from the years it had gone through. The page itself was torn and threatening to fall apart.

Louis finally got up too. He reached his arm right in front of Tawny's face (partly to aggravate her) and turned the page of the album. And what they saw on the next page, was nothing they would have expected. Even though the next photo was a little worn, it was clear they were seeing what they thought they were seeing.

Louis' face was staring up at them from the photo album.

It was definitely Louis' face, but not his body. This man had a tall, dark figure, broad shoulders, and a hand on his hip with attitude.

"Louis, he-he-he look's just like—"

"Do you know him?" Tawny asked, petrified.

"I dunno," Louis said slowly. "What's his name?"

Allison ran her finger along the edge of the picture until she found its caption. "Jacob Schemer at the Stevenson family's open house picnic."

"Jacob Schemer." Louis repeated. "Where have I heard that name before?"

"Jacob Schemer. . .didn't Miss Pateer say something about his name fitting his personality or something?"

"Oh my gosh," Tawny gasped. "Louis, you're practically the identical twin of the murderer of Stevenson House!"

>>>>

For at least ten minutes, Louis, Tawny, Allison, and Tom just stayed put in that storage room, observing the rest of the album. Tom and Allison had begun to look at the other old photo albums lining the shelves all around the room.

"Wow, the Stevenson's must have been pretty organized. All these albums are labeled the same: Our Life On Pages 1, Our Life On Pages 2. . .they were rich so they probably hired a lot of people to put these together for them." Allison commented as she pulled different albums from their shelves.

Tom on the other hands, was just dragging his finger along the spines as he read all the labels and walked in circles around the room. He stopped when he came to a gap on a shelf. The gap was in between OLOP 13 and OLOP 15 (a/n: the acronym for Our Life On Pages).

"Tawny?" he asked. "What number is your album?"

Tawny glanced quickly at the spine label and then returned to the page she had been looking at. "OLOP 9, Tom. Why?"

"There seems to be one missing," he said. "Number 14."

"So?" Louis yawned. "It's probably around here somewhere. Hey, can we go to bed now? I need all the energy I can get to avoid Miss Pateer tomorrow."

"Louis, we've got to find more pictures of this Jacob Schemer guy." Tawny started. "I mean, he looks exactly like you!"

"Yeah. . .but we know that already! I'm sure we can get some more time in here later. Let's just go." He stifled a yawn.

"Fine." Tawny surrendered the album she'd been holding and starting pushing them toward the door.

When everyone was out, she turned off the light and followed everyone else up the stairs.

It seemed to take at least five minutes to get all the way up the stairs, and luckily no steps creaked this time.

When they were all safe in Tawny and Allison's room, Twitty wasn't there. Apparently he was in his, Louis and Tom's room.

"Well, we'd better get to bed," Allison said. "But I don't think that you should try to avoid Miss Pateer and everyone."

"Why?" Tawny asked. "It's obvious she wants something with Louis and Twitty? Why else would she lock them in a room?"

"Because we found a passageway," Louis cut in.

"Yeah, and apparently she didn't want you to find it," Tawny retorted.

"Well, just to be safe, I say that we take Louis and Twitty back to the room they were locked in, lock them in, and then find Miss Pateer. If she wants to keep anything from us she'll have to let them out!" Allison grinned.

"I hope so," Tawny says. "Unless it's time for the evil villain to reveal her plan."

A/N: So there's the latest installment! Again, I'm sorry I haven't updated all summer! I promise I'll try to update more often! Please review!


	10. The Mystery Starts

**The Mystery Starts**

"We will be _right back_," Tawny whispered through the door of Eleanor's bedroom. "I promise. Just. . .make it seem like you've been tortured or something."

"Can do!" came Louis's voice from inside.

"Tawny," Allison said suddenly, putting her arm in front of her friend to stop her. "Miss Pateer knows they escaped."

"I know, but hopefully we were convincing enough for her not to think that we know." Tawny stated. "Maybe she'll think they locked themselves in, or better yet, think that whoever told her they were gone, had lied to her."

"That would be a miracle."

The two girls got to the bottom of the narrow staircase and headed down to the parlor. When they got there, the sunlight of the morning shone through the great window above the front door, illuminating everything in the room. The parlor was fairly crowded with kids in costume and talking as their characters. The night before, Twitty and Louis had hidden in Tawny and Allison's room while they formulated their plan. Tawny, Allison, and Tom had to get into costume or else it would seem too suspicious.

Tawny was a young, wealthy Irish girl named Kate McRaver. Allison was a young woman from Mexico named Alejandra Rodriguez. They tried to blend in as their dresses (both from Tawny's house) swished about, like most of the other girls' dresses. There had been no murders reported, and most kids were just socializing, as if they were in the cafeteria at school.

"Now what?" Allison whispered to Tawny as Tom joined them next to the sofa.

"We find Miss Pateer, that's what."

As if on cue, Miss Pateer's high and now annoying voice rang throughout the parlor.

"Children! I hope you are enjoying yourselves! We have a fascinating day planned ahead! Just check the list of activities posted on the wall. And be careful, we have a murderer on the loose."

This caused most of the kids to look at each other uncertainly.

Miss Pateer began rearranging some of the lamps and polished gems that were set upon the piano next to the sofa.

_She sure seems attached to this place_, Tawny thought.

"So, who's going to do the talking?" she asked.

"You're the actress, you do it!" Allison urged quietly. "You should, you know, what do you call it? Improvise."

"Okay," Tawny replied. "Here goes."

She stepped in front of Allison and Tom as Miss Pateer began to walk away.

"Miss Pateer," Tawny tapped the guide's shoulder before she could go any further. "We have a problem."

"Oh, dear, what would that be?" Miss Pateer seemed to slur in her speech, much less friendly than usual.

"I told you that my two friends were missing, and we heard some. . .uh. . .some calling coming from the room above us. It sounded an awful like them! Knowing...um, Darnell and Clarence, they probably locked themselves in some room while going off to make trouble."

"Hmm." Miss Pateer's eyes narrowed a bit.

"Do you think you could check it out?"

"Well, I suppose so," Miss Pateer said reluctantly.

She turned on her heel and headed to the stairs. "They probably locked themselves in the attic. I knew I should have warned visitors that they could easily lose themselves in this place. Oh, they must have been there all night. . ."

Tawny was the first person behind Miss Pateer. She turned and looked awkwardly at Allison, who was walking behind her. They both shrugged at each other. Tom started shaking a bit, but as it got more noticeable, Allison had to slap his arm in order to get him to stop.

Miss Pateer led the way as they ascended the stairs. When they walked down the hall that led to the attic door, Tawny's heart began beating faster. She, herself started shaking a bit. Miss Pateer opened the attic door and quickly hustled up the narrow staircase. When she arrived at the top, she rapped on the door.

"Boys!" She bellowed. "Are you in there?"

"Uh, yeah Miss Pateer," came Louis's voice.

Tawny figured he was trying to think of something to say.

"Uh, we seem to, um, be kinda stuck in here. . ." Louis's voice trailed off.

"And we've been trying to get out all night!" Twitty added quickly.

"You boys should not have been wandering around. You wouldn't want anything to. . ._happen_, would you?" Miss Pateer said in a sly tone.

She opened the door, and Tawny could see what a job Louis and Twitty had been working on since she had locked them in.

Louis was clinging to Twitty and Twitty had a surprised/terrified look frozen on his face. They almost looked like the closing pose of a circus act! Even Miss Pateer seemed surprised.

"Well, then, you'd best take care of yourselves," Miss Pateer huffed. She stared daggers at Tawny, as if trying desperately to restrain herself from attacking the girl.

"Now go on," She said with seemingly forced sweetness. "Don't want you to miss the rest of the activities! Go on!"

Louis, Twitty, Allison, Tom and Tawny quickly left Eleanor's room one by one. Tawny, the last person to go before Miss Pateer, could have sworn that she heard Miss Pateer mutter "_Sophie!_" Maybe it _was_ a miracle. Or maybe her ears were just playing tricks on her.

* * *

"Okay, that was weird," Twitty said, running a hand through his hair.

The group had locked themselves in Tawny and Allison's room.

"I have no idea what just happened," Tawny said, recalling Miss Pateer's last words in the attic. "_Maybe_ she knew but she couldn't admit that she had locked them in or something. She's up to something, and can't show signs of it."

"Well, we need to do something," Allison said. "We can't just sit here! We have to call the police."

"But we can't!" Tawny argued. "We have no proof, solid evidence. We have nothing!"

"Are you sure?" Allison asked.

"As sure as I will be right now," Tawny replied, collapsing on her bed.

"Do you think those old photo albums had anything to do with Miss Pateer?" Tom spoke up.

"Like what?" Tawny asked. "Those albums were of the Stevenson family. They're probably just staying here until they're moved somewhere. I mean, this _is _the Stevenson's actual house. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the original furniture was still here"

With a disgusted look, Louis jumped up from the old-looking armchair he'd been sitting in. "Ugh!"

"Louis, get real," Tawny said seriously, but a giggle escaped her.

"Remember that missing photo album?" Allison asked, back on the subject of the albums. "Maybe Miss Pateer had it. And if so, she must have needed it."

"Or maybe she just wanted to get to know the old Stevenson family. I mean, she's got to have _something_ to work with in order to run this murder mystery." Tawny said.

"Maybe, maybe not," Allison said. "But which one was missing, anyway? Tom?"

"I don't recall," Tom said. "OLOP 13, OLOP 14. . ."

"Hey, I've got a photo album," Twitty cut in.

"You do?" Louis asked. "Where'd ya get it"

"Well, it _was _kind of my excuse of getting away from that creepy butler," Twitty said.

"Oh, yeah," Louis murmured.

"Where is it?" Tawny asked.

"I think I stashed it in your dresser," Twitty told her. "I didn't want to look at it. It was old and icky."

Tawny sighed and said bossily, "Too bad."

She headed to the dresser and opened a drawer. After rummaging around a bit, she pulled out a big dark book identical to the others from the storage room. She looked at its spine and read, "'Our Life on Pages 14'."

"Oh, well it was 'OLOP 14', then," Tom concluded.

"Where'd you find it?" Tawny asked, opening the book to the first page.

"On a coffee table in the parlor," Twitty replied.

"Why wasn't it with the others?" Allison asked.

"Hey, that's not important now," Louis said, standing next to Tawny. "Let's just look at it."

"Wait, why are we looking at it anyway?" Twitty asked.

Tawny shrugged. "It's interesting, I guess."

She turned a couple of pages into the photo album. The pictures were no different: old, wrinkled, and yellow, with a caption written in neat, careful script underneath.

"Hey, is that Eleanor?" Allison asked, pointing to a picture.

Ever since hearing about baby Eleanor's death, the group had actually been a little anxious to find a picture of her.

Tawny read the caption. "Drake and Gloria Stevenson with their daughter Patty. Well, I guess it's not Eleanor. Must be her cousin or something."

After looking through the rest of book and finding nothing interesting, they turned back to the first page. The first picture was of a man and woman holding hands and pointing to the house behind them. It was the Stevenson House.

"This must be Henry and Clarice," Tawny observed.

Sure enough, the caption read, "Henry and Clarice Stevenson, the proud new owners of this glorious home."

"I guess they put the pictures in no particular order," Tawny said. "This is probably from when they had first built the house. Maybe they're categorized some other way."

"Why does the caption have a star next to it?" Allison asked, pointing to a faded asterisk.

"Dunno," Tawny shrugged. "This picture's caption does too."

The picture was of a Negro woman, sewing. She didn't look too happy as she stared at the camera. But then again, no one seemed to be smiling in any of the pictures.

"Must be a seamstress or something," Louis said, but he sounded a little bored. "Hey, can we look at this later? I'm hungry."

"Fine," Tawny said, snapping the album shut. "We can't stay in here all day anyway. It'll be too suspicious."

"Yeah, we'd better get a move on" Tom said. "We've got activities to do"

Tawny and Louis smiled at each other.

"Shall we?" Louis asked, holding his arm out.

"We shall!" Tawny laughed, linking her arm through his.

"Now it's time for the _real _murder mystery to start!" Louis exclaimed.

Unless it had already started. . .


	11. Suspicion and Unclear Clues

A/N: Hi. . .I'm really sorry that I didn't post anything for a month! My last update was the last day of October, and now it's the last day of November. I've just been really busy. Jazz band and regular band class have had extra rehearsals at the same time as show choir this month, so I had to compensate. Then I would have to do the (surprisingly low amount of) homework I got. I'm pretty lucky that I'm on the TEAM I'm on at school, the other two teams are LOADED with schoolwork! But I do have a lot of extra cirriculars which takes writing time away. But now, I've got enough free time at the moment to get in another chapter. Thanks for your reviews on the previous chapters, and I hope you enjoy this one!

**Suspicion and Unclear Clues**

_Wow, I look like a porcupine_, Ren thought as she looked at herself in the mirror. The drapes of the window in the room she was staying in were still closed, leaving a scattered beam of sunlight across her wooden floor.

Senator Stevens had never been anywhere near Ren's clothing size, and was unable to supply her with an old dress that her daughter could borrow. Therefore Ren had to borrow her costume from her friend Ruby, who was loaded with old garments and dresses. From the look of the clothes Ruby had in her closet and attic, the borrowed gown actually looked pretty close to an old English puadasoy dress. Although it matched Ren's time period, she still thought she looked like a porcupine. Her hair was in a neat bun, but by the look of the dress's broad shoulders and spikey-looking texture, she ended up taking her hair down. As she reached for her comb to rebrush her hair, Ren accidentally knocked it off her dresser.

With a sigh, she kneeled down (as well as she could in that dress!) and was about to grab the comb when a grey blur swept past her from underneath the dresser. As she focused her eyes, the blur came to a halt, and stared back at her.

"Eek! A mouse!" Ren yelped and jumped backward.

The little grey mouse looked back at her with beady, black eyes. Before it rushed off underneath a large crack in the wall, Ren noticed that it was holding a small, sewing needle in its little fingers. Then it was gone. Ren looked over her bed at the crack the little critter had just gone under, then turned away. After picking up her comb and giving her hair a few quick swipes, she decided to find Miss Pateer and report the tiny intruder.

As she stepped out of her bedroom two boys ran past her, almost knocking her clear off her feet.

"Hey! Watch out next time, boys!" Ren shook her head, annoyed. The boys paid her no mind.

It was even more difficult to get through the hallway and down the stairs, 8th graders all over the place were goofing off with each other, making fun of each other's costumes, or just ignoring the murder mystery game and acting as if they were at each other's homes. Ren pushed her way through the crowd and finally got down to the parlor. After looking for Miss Pateer for a few minutes, she moved into the giftshop.

For awhile, she became a bit distracted from her search, and started strolling around the small room filled with old items. She stopped at the postcard rack that was set upon the counter, next to the cash register. One caught her eye and she picked it up. It looked familiar. Too familiar. It also happened to be the one Tom had been looking at. In the black and white photo on the postcard, stood a dark figure in front of Stevenson House. She couldn't really make out the face of the person, but there was something awfully recognizable on it. . .maybe it was the eyes, or the nose. . ._something_.

"Hmm." Ren placed the postcard back on the rack.

"Hey, stop it!" Came a girl's voice from behind her.

Ren turned quickly as one of the students rushed past her, being chased by a boy. As the girl passed Ren, she stepped on the hem of Ren's long skirt, pulling it with her for a split second, and then wrenching it free.

With another sigh, Ren bent down to examine her skirt as the two 8th graders raced out of the giftshop. As she patted her skirt carefully, she suddeny froze at the sound of a loud _thump_. She slowly stood up, and turned her head in the direction of the noise. _Thump_. She heard it again. It sounded like it came from behind the counter. It was then that Ren noticed a door there. Her first instinct was to walk around the counter and push open the door, but then she hesitated. Maybe it was nothing.

Just as she headed back to the parlor, the door opened with a loud creak that made Ren flinch. Where the door had been closed, there now stood Miss Pateer, looking straight at Ren. She had an unfamiliar look about her—hate almost. Only when Miss Pateer asked "Can I help you with something?" did Ren realize that she had been practically gawking at Miss Pateer for a few seconds.

"Oh!" she snapped out of her train of thought. "Sorry, I uh—"

As Ren tried to remember the reason she had come down, Miss Pateer left the giftshop and made her way over to the sofas. She slowly lowered herself far enough to see the shelf underneath a coffee table.

"Um, do you need help with something?" Ren asked.

"What? Oh! Oh, no, honey. I was just. . ." Miss Pateer quickly shook her head. "I'm sorry, was there something you wanted to say?"

Ren had a sudden urge to leave the room. "Oh, no. I was just looking around."

"Very well," Miss Pateer flashed her a seemingly-fake smile. "Well, you enjoy yourself, too, missy. Just because you're the helper doesn't mean you can't have some fun!"

"Oh, I will!" Ren replied with as much enthusiasm as she could work up. "I think I'll go check on the kids upstairs."

"Well, make sure they're careful," Miss Pateer told her, as she looked under another coffee table. "I have a hunch that the first murder is coming up. I can feel it in my bones."

"Okay." Ren grinned. "Well, thanks for everything you've done for us."

Miss Pateer didn't respond, so Ren quickly walked to the stairs, as well as she could at least. Her dress restricted her from taking wider steps.

"Oh, hey, Ren!" Tawny said as she passed Ren on her way down the steps. "Haven't seen you lately."

"Yeah," Ren said. "But I've got to go now. I need to take care of something in my room."

She had a disgusted look on her face.

"Okay," Tawny replied.

She got to the bottom of the steps and headed straight for the dining room.

"There you are," she said to Louis, Twitty, and Tom, who were huddled in a corner. "Where have you been?"

"Look what we found!" Twitty said, holding out his hands.

"Ugh!" Tawny almost shrieked, causing some kids around her to look at her. "Where did you find that?"

"Aw, come on Tawny, it's just a little mousie," Louis said sweetly.

Tawny rolled her eyes as Tom said, "I-I agree w-w-with T-Tawny. Y-you sh-should

put that m-m-m-m-mouse back where it came from—GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!"

"Shh!" Tawny said, looking cautiously at the kids around them. "Have you two seen Allison?"

"Oh, I'm here!" came Allison's sweet voice. "Sorry, I was just in the giftshop."

"Oh, well I think we should start to—" Tawny began.

"And we have a slight problem." Allison interupted.

Tawny looked incredulously at the girl. She got over her shock and managed to say, "Oh. What's wrong?"

Allison leaned in and said in a hushed whisper, "I think Miss Pateer knows there's a photo album missing."

"What's the big deal with these albums anyway?" Louis yawned. "They're just a bunch of old, icky pictures."

"And is it our buisness anway?" Tom asked.

"I really don't know," Tawny said. "I don't know why it's so important. It's just mysterious, I guess."

"What is so mysterious?" Twitty demanded.

"The whole thing!" Tawny said. "It seems impossible that Miss Pateer couldn't be up to something. It's just one of the things that you know but can't say why or prove it."

"I know what you mean," Allison said. "I have the feeling too."

"Ugh, this mouse just won't let go of this needle!" Louis said suddenly. "Ouch!"

"So what's happening with the whole murder mystery?" Tom asked, being the one to ignore _Louis _this time. "Why hasn't anyone gotten killed yet?"

"Maybe they're just biding their time," Louis said evilly. "Waiting for their chance to _pounce_!"

He managed to give Tom a good scare. "Stop it! How do I know you're not the murderer?"

"Oh come on, Tom. Get real," Louis told him in a sly tone.

"Would you knock it off?" Tawny asked. "Anyway, I know that something's up. And I'm going to figure it out. I just hope we're not getting ourselves into something too deep to get out of."

"What do you mean 'we'?" Louis asked. "Look, it's probably nothing."

"The woman locked you in a room, Louis!" Tawny whispered loudly.

"So? That stuff happens to me all the time!" Louis grinned.

"Well, I think we should go back and look at that photo album again," Tawny said. "There's something there, I know it. And put that mouse down!"

The group walked through the crowded parlor and back up all the stairs to the girls' room. After a few dirty looks from Tawny (and Tom), Louis reluctantly let the mouse go. As they shut Tawny and Allison's door, it scurried across the floor, down the hallway, and disappeared into the darkness.

A/N: Again, I'm sorry. I'm going to try my best to update as fast as I can! Just understand, I'm pretty busy at the moment, but I hope this chapter made up for the wait. Thanks!


	12. The First Murder

A/N: I'm really sorry I haven't updated forever. Over winter break, I broke my arm and couldn't type as well and that slowed down my story progression. But now my arm is nearly healed and I have had a lot of time to think this story through. I appreciate the reviews! Enjoy this next chapter!

**The First Murder**

"Is the door locked?" Tawny asked as she pulled the photo album from her dresser.

Louis went and double-checked. "Yeah, as if that could keep _her _out anyway."

The group chuckled.

"Well, we've already looked through this once, I don't think anything has really changed," Tawny observed. "I wish we could get more photo albums, but that would be too risky. Miss Pateer could send us home at any second."

"Well, if she locked us up in a room, who's to say she wouldn't just send us home?" Twitty asked.

"Wouldn't that seem a little suspicious?" Allison asked, sitting on her bed. "She could always make up a reason for sending you home, but I think your parents know you and Louis well enough to believe you."

"Let's not think about that right now," Tawny said, turning her attention back to OLOP 14. "Here's that Patty girl again. But where's Eleanor?"

Tom looked over Tawny's shoulder at the picture. "Maybe she wasn't born yet. You saw the picture of Henry and his wife in front of their house. They had just moved here."

"But these pictures are probably out of order," Tawny argued. "There were tons of pictures in earlier albums that were definitely taken _way _after the house was built."

"Whatever you say." Tom raised his hands in defeat.

"Besides, there probably aren't a lot of pictures of Eleanor because she was killed pretty quickly after she was born," Allison pointed out. "Remember what Miss Pateer said? Her bones weren't developed enough. How old could she possibly have been?"

"Who knows?" Tawny said.

"Poor Eleanor," Allison sighed, staring down at her feet. "She had no chance. All because of Jacob Schemer." She looked up. "What do you think they Stevensons were like?"

"I don't know," Tawny replied. "You can't really tell from the pictures. They're old and worn, and no one is smiling."

"You can tell by their faces, though," Allison said. "Anyone with a warming heart has a warming face."

Tawny stared at the photo album in her lap. "Clarice looks kind of nice, if you think about it. It _was _the early 1900's, though. Parents were really strict."

"But there were always the mothers and fathers that treated their children like princes and princesses."

"Yeah," Tawny said. "But what could they have done to make Schemer do what he did?"

"Didn't Miss Pateer mention him wanting to show the family what happens when they show off their wealth or something?" Tom asked. "Maybe they weren't so nice a family."

Tawny examined a family photo of the Stevensons. "No. Jacob Schemer must have been a sick person. A sick, greedy, homicidal person."

The room was silent for a moment, until they heard a soft snore from the corner.

Everyone in the room looked toward the armchair, in which Louis has fallen asleep sitting up. With a groan, Tawny snapped close the album, marched over to Louis, and shoved him in the shoulder.

Louis woke with a snort. "Huh? What'd I miss?"

Tawny was about to make a remark, when they heard a shrill scream coming from down the hallway.

Without a word, the group dashed from the chairs and beds, ran out the door, and followed the distant sounds of rushing feet and chattering.

Before long, they were squished in the middle of a group of bickering 8th graders, all trying to move forward to see what had happened. The hallway had never seemed so small. Louis, Twitty, Tawny, Allison, and Tom tried as best they could to shove their way through the crowd, but had little success.

"Everybody quiet!"

The entire hallway seemed to quiet down at the sound of Miss Pateer's voice.

"What's going on?" a girl asked.

"Who is it?" someone else asked.

With one great push forward, Tawny forced herself through the rest of the people, stayed for a moment, and then rebounded back to the group.

"It's Ryan," she said.

The voices started up again, and it was impossible to make out one person's voice at a time.

"Apparently someone has strangled poor Colin Riverstone with some lace," came Miss Pateer's voice (referring to Ryan's character name). "Lace from a dress, perhaps?"

There was a soft rustling of clothing as everyone tried to find a girl with lace on their costumes.

"Now, now." Miss Pateer spoke calmly. "I am sure we can find the person responsible for this, and prevent any more tragedies. But for now, I would like all of you to gather around in the parlor."

The students obeyed, too frightened and confused to do otherwise, and slowly moved down the hall to the staircase.

"So what's gonna happen to Ryan now?" Twitty asked.

"Dunno," Louis replied, grinning. "Maybe she'll just lock him in a room for the rest of the week."

Tawny jabbed him in the ribs.

"Humph!" Louis clutched his stomach.

"This is actually kind of creepy," Allison commented as they made their way down the stairs. "Who knows who is going be next?"

Tom shook slightly. "Perhaps a girl next."

"Tom!" Allison exclaimed.

"Or maybe not." Tom redeemed himself.

By the time they reached the bottom of the staircase, the sofas and armchairs were already overloaded with students, so the group found a spot on the floor to sit.

Ryan stood next to Miss Pateer, who then handed him a card. "This will be your new character."

Ryan nodded and quickly sat down with his friends.

"Now, I know this is a bit exciting _and_ frightening at the moment, but at this time I would just like you to talk amongst yourselves for a few minutes and try to note some suspects, people that seem a bit suspicious to you," Miss Pateer instructed.

"Well, Louis, obviously!" a girl blurted out.

"Yeah!" people agreed. "When wouldn't it be?"

"Hey!" Louis argued. "I've got my rights!"

The argument when on, but most people pointed their fingers at Louis. A few minutes later, Miss Pateer excused everyone.

"Well, obviously we have a few accusations. We will see where they lead you," she said.

Louis and his friends made their way over to Ryan, who was chatting with a couple boys.

"So, what was it like to be the first dude to go down?" Twitty asked, slapping Ryan a high-five.

"Well, actually, it was kind of weird," Ryan said. "All I remember is being alone in the dark, then someone whispering in my ear, and laying me out on the floor, telling me to stay still. Then they left, and a light went on. About 30 seconds later some girls saw me and screamed. Then everyone came and started yelling." He smiled. "It was not the most comfortable moment for me!"

"That is so cool!" Twitty smiled. "But that would be so freaky!"

"Did you recognize the voice?" Tawny asked.

Ryan shook his head. "It was like a ghost, almost, barely a whisper."

"Yeah, that's creepy," Louis said.

"Well, thanks," Tawny said to Ryan, and then led the group back to the stairs. "Maybe we should look around at the spot where Ryan was murdered."

"Wait—do you think the two stories are tied?" Allison asked. "The fake murder, and the Stevensons?"

"I have no idea," Tawny said. "But maybe we'll find something interesting anyway. And maybe, if we get a chance, we can find more photo albums."

"Are you crazy?" Louis asked her, bewildered. "We can't go back in there! Miss Pateer will know something's up!"

Tawny looked at Louis, surprised. "Since when do you take precautions?"

"I just don't want to get in too deep," Louis said. "I'll admit it—I'm kind of freaked out by this. Did you ever think that Miss Pateer might be. . ._mad_?"

"A madwoman," Tom said. "Yeah, that'll be a great thing to tell our parents after this trip."

"Well, the best thing we can do right now is play along with the murder mystery game like we're _supposed _to, but I think there's more to be investigated than we think."

"What could there possibly be?" Allison asked. "Do you think Miss Pateer would run this murder mystery house over and over again after our school leaves if she had something to hide?"

Tawny shrugged. "You never know what goes through some people's minds." She turned her head and watched Miss Pateer, who was examining the big bookshelf near the entrance to the dining room. "People have their own way of doing things. It's harder to figure out what they're up to, what they're planning, and _what _they are going to do."


	13. The Clue in the Album

**A/N:** I am so sorry I haven't updated in so long! I have been really busy…cheerleading practices started, I have finals coming up, and I have been a bit stressed for the past couple of weeks. But now I'm glad that I have time to finally update. Thanks for the reviews!

**The Clue in the Album**

The main conversation at dinner that night was, of course, never directed away from the first murder. For some reason, contrary to his casualty about being the first to get killed, Ryan had become somewhat quiet throughout the remainder of the day. He may have even been a bit…spooked, Tawny observed.

Tawny looked around the long table at all of the chattering students; so carefree, so relaxed. But Tawny had never been one of those people. She always stood out. At the start of junior high, she had been characterized as just odd. It seemed like she would always be that way—that is, until she set her eyes upon Louis for the first time.

But now she shook that thought out of her head. She knew that she had to keep Miss Pateer under her eye. While the rest of her classmates enjoyed their week, she would be the one doing the real sleuthing, and if she for some reason went down, Louis, Twitty, Allison and Tom would too. No matter what, they all had to keep this under their sleeves.

Tawny began to get a tight feeling in her stomach. She had barely touched her food, but she already felt pretty full. She stared across the table at Louis, who was showering Ryan with all sorts of questions. Unlike his usual wacky self, his face was serious. And if Stevenson House could make _Louis_ do that, there had to be something wrong here.

Tawny's thoughts were interrupted as the swinging door to the kitchen opened and Sophie, the not-so-pleasant cook, came out, carrying a tray of steaming soup. As she set down one of the bowls down in front of Tawny, and the others sitting around her, Tawny began to feel sick. She must have looked a bit pale, because Allison, who sat next to her, put down her spoon and asked, "Do you feel okay, Tawny?"

"I don't know," Tawny replied. "I think I need to lie down."

She stood up slowly and began walking away from the dining room, hoping Miss Pateer wouldn't notice and ask questions. Louis and Twitty hadn't even noticed, they were busy shoving their soup into their mouth, splattering the now-disgusted people around them.

Tawny slowly ascended the staircase and made her way down the hall to her room. The second she opened the door, the nauseous feeling suddenly lifted. Tawny daringly shook her head quickly. Not wanting to go back down to dinner, she looked around the bedroom until her eyes fell upon the dresser, where she had again stored the old photo album.

Now Tawny slowly walked up to the dresser, nearly jumping each time the floor suddenly creaked in the silence of the room. The distant sound of people down at dinner eased her thoughts as she came closer to the door. She pulled open the top drawer of the dresser and dug around its contents until she found the book. Making her way back to her bed, she seated herself and rested the album on her knee. By now she had already looked through it about a dozen times, and each timed she seemed to notice more details hidden inside of it.

Finding nothing out of the ordinary, Tawny casually flipped through the pages, being careful enough not to tear them. After a few minutes she let out a soft sigh. Then, as she was about to close the album, her eyes fell upon something sticking out from under a picture of the front of Stevenson House. She did a double take, before running her fingers across the edge of the photo to make sure there was actually something there.

It was ever so slight, but underneath the top left corner of the picture, there seemed to be the corner of a separate piece of paper. Quickly taking control of her eagerness, Tawny grasped the corner of the object with her fingernails and slowly pulled it out until more of the paper revealed itself. In contrast to the aging photographs, this piece of paper looked quite new. It wasn't yellowed or wrinkled, just folded into a neat rectangle.

Tawny unfolded the paper and flattened it out on the bed before reading:

_I think this may be the one. We'll need to do further investigation before putting the plan into action, but for now I'll keep this here and you will need to take it to the safe room the second you can._

The brief but meaningful note made Tawny's brain explode with ideas. Trying to sort through her thoughts, Tawny noted that the writer of the message had different handwriting than she had seen. The letters were slanted to the left, but still readable, and obviously not written a hundred years ago.

Next Tawny thought through her ideas: was the note referring to the photo album? She quickly found the picture the note had originally been under and immediately saw another asterisk next to its label. Maybe it was just something the Stevensons wanted to remember. That has to be what the stars are for.

Tawny had an idea of who may have written the note, but she wasn't exactly sure, and then found herself surprised to find that she was afraid someone was listening. Now on the alert, Tawny dashed back to the dresser and shoved the album back into the drawer. Now there was no way she was returning this album back to the storage room.

Tawny turned away from the dresser after closing it and surveyed the room. She felt the ill feeling creeping back, so she decided to lie down and rest until Allison and everyone came up from dinner. Now she probably had the hunger sickness, but she still didn't want to go back downstairs. No, for now she would rest. It had been a long day.

>>>>

The thumping sound of feet on the bedroom floor woke Tawny with a jolt. Allison and Twitty stood at the foot of her bed, staring down at her with worried expressions.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Allison asked her.

Tawny nodded, trying to get the sleepy taste out of her mouth. "Yeah, I'm just a little exhausted, that's all."

"Well, we brought you some food from dinner." Allison sat down next to Tawny, holding out a bag of roost beef.

Tawny ate the food gladly, almost forgetting about her discovery. Suddenly, she snapped back to her original thoughts and said, almost shouting, "You won't believe what I found!"

After a few minutes, Tawny had related her findings to Louis, Twitty, Allison and Tom, and shown them the actual note.

"We should keep this just in case," Allison said, reaching out for the paper. "It's evidence."

"Wow, I feel like a detective," Twitty said. "It's like there's this whole police case dilemma and we're the only ones who can solve it!"

"Hey, you guys have to take this seriously!" Tawny suddenly snapped out of her sleepiness as Louis and Twitty exchanged goofy grins. "Do you realize how serious this is? While everyone else is having a handy-dandy time, their own safety could be in danger!"

"Hey, Tawny, did I ever tell you that you take things way to seriously?" Louis cut in. "School, drama, and now a semi-nonexistent criminal case."

"Hey, back off, Louis," Allison said in her quiet voice. "I really don't have a good feeling about this. I strongly believe that there is something fishy here. I mean, look at the note!"

She motioned to the note still clutched Tawny's hand. Tawny returned her attention to the writing and added, "It mentioned a safe room. If this was written as recent as we think, then there must be a 'safe room' somewhere inside this house."

"It must be in this house," Tom put in. "Judging by the dust and general state of the books, they haven't been moved for years."

"You're probably right," Tawny said, folding up the note. "But for now, we need to find our own safe place for it. We can't let it fall into the wrong hands."

"I'll take it," Allison offered, reaching out for the paper. "I know just the place."

"Hey, have you seen Ren lately?" Tawny asked Louis and Twitty.

"Yeah, I think she was helping Sophie in the kitchen after dinner," Twitty replied. "Why?"

"Isn't it obvious? We should tell her everything, don't you think?"

"Are you kidding?" Louis exclaimed. "She would never believe us! Think about it: the prank calling, Beans supposedly being an alien…you do the math."

"She might not believe you," Tawny smiled. "But with me, that's a different story."

>>>>

Ren tried to keep a cheery faced as she helped Sophie wash the dishes from dinner, but the stench of the kitchen was almost overbearing. Her eyes watered and her nose became stuffed up, as if she were peeling raw onions.

"So, Miss Dunlap," she managed to say, nearly desperate to start a conversation that lasted more than ten seconds, "how long have you been working with Miss Pateer?"

"A fair few years," the elderly woman answered gruffly.

When she said no more, Ren pushed forward once again. "So…do you like working in Stevenson house?"

Sophie wiped some sweat off of her forehead with her sleeve as she replied, "Well, this house seems to cast a spell on you after a while, especially when you actually knew the family."

This caught Ren's attention. "You knew the Stevensons?"

Sophie nodded slightly, as if she regretted releasing this information.

"Do you know any of their descendants?" Ren asked curiously.

Sophie didn't answer. She was busy toweling off some porcelain dishes and placing them carefully back into the cabinets.

Ren couldn't think of anything else to say. For about five more minutes she and Sophie worked quietly. The only sound in the room was the loud air conditioner attached to the window. Despite it, the room was still stuffy. Ren had no idea how Sophie could bear working in such a hot place for so long. She thought about asking her, but feared that she would just annoy her, or just get ignored. Besides, it probably wasn't so bad in the winter.

As she continued to dunk the dinner plates and cups in the sink, she thought back to her own original questions; the ones she had never asked anyone since she arrived at Stevenson House the day before last. The house had sent off a strange feeling, as if it were holding a dark secret that needed to be lifted.

_No, it's just your imagination_, Ren reasoned. _Don't let your mind get carried away_.

That last thought made Ren smile, thinking of Louis. He had come up with plenty of unbelievable excuses and stories throughout the years. What he might come up with next, she was almost excited to hear.

Well, she didn't have to wait too long, for the door connecting the kitchen and dining room swung open, and Tawny appeared in the threshold.

"Ren, we need to talk to you _now_."

**A/N: **So now Ren is getting involved with the whole shebang. How will that end up? Well, you'll just have to wait and see. I'll try to update as soon as I can. I promise. School is getting out for thesummer in only a couple of weeks, and I will have plenty of time then as well.


	14. The Inexplicable Gift

**A/N: **In case you haven't been able to make this clear: this chapter takes place on Wednesday, so the week at Stevenson House is almost up. Just letting you know!

The Inexplicable Gift 

"So let me get this straight," Ren said, waving her hands to stop Tawny from saying anything more. "You all think that Miss Pateer is out to sabotage this trip and we're all in _danger_?"

"Well, that's a little harsh," Louis pointed out.

"But still sort of true," Tawny cut in.

"I can't believe this," Ren said.

"I know, it's just awful," Twitty remarked. "You would think—"

"No!" Ren interrupted. "_I _can't believe that you would actually make up something like this just to scare everyone! That's really low, Louis."

"But—"

"You outta be ashamed of yourself!" Ren pushed herself off of Tawny's bed and started for the door. "In fact, I should let Miss Pateer know just so you don't try and pull—"

"Ren, STOP!" Louis dashed toward the door and blocked it just in time. "Please, Ren, I'm your brother. I would _never _lie to you about something like this. I'm serious. We're _all _serious!"

Ren shook her head and turned to look at Tawny. "I would have thought at least Tawny would have had good enough judgment not to get tangled up in one of your stupid pranks."

"Ren," Allison came to put her hand on Ren's shoulder. "You have to believe us. We—we have...um…"

"You have what?" Ren crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.

"We have proof!" Tom exclaimed. "Allison, go get it!"

Allison nodded and headed to one of the closets. She opened the door and parted the clothes until the back wall was revealed.

"AH!" Ren yelped, nearly jumping a foot off the ground. "That's disgusting!"

Allison smiled and bent down underneath the clothes. When she moved to the left, everyone could see what was apparently so disgusting.

A little mouse hole had been dug into the wall.

Allison reached inside of it and felt around until she pulled out the folded note. She stood up and walked back to the doorway, where Ren still stood, a look of disgust still planted on her face. Allison held up the note until it was inches from Ren's nose.

"Read it."

Ren seemed to be a bit taken aghast by Allison's sudden assertiveness. She slowly took the note from her hand and unfolded it. As her eyes scanned the brief sentences, her face expression changed from startled to confused.

"What does this have to do with anything?" she asked, folding the note back up.

"We found it in a photo album," Tawny said. "It looks like it was written pretty recently, don't you think? And how old do you think these albums are?"

"Wait—what albums again?" Ren asked.

Tawny nodded to Louis and he shut the door. She took a couple steps around Ren to get to the dresser and once again dug out the album. She opened it to the page where she had found the note and handed it to Ren.

"So…this is where you found it, huh?" Ren asked, a tone of amusement in her voice.

"Yes," Tawny answered seriously. "I wish we had more to show you, but that's all we've got."

The room was quiet for a moment, that is, until the silent was broken by a quiet _squeak._

"What was that?" Tom asked.

The squeaking continued, until they traced the source of the voice to be coming from the mouse hole in the closet. A few seconds later, a little mouse scurried out of the hole.

"Eek!" Ren yelled. "Not again!"

She dashed across the room and jumped onto Tawny's bed, her hand still gripping the note. The mouse made it's way around the room, inspecting each person it came to, until it finally stopped at Louis.

"Hey, little buddy," Louis said, gently lifting the mouse into his hands. "Whatcha got there?"

"Hey, it's that needle again," Twitty said, taking a step toward Louis.

He wrestled around a bit to get the needle out of the mouse's tiny fingers, but finally won the battle. Tawny quickly walked over to him and took the needle from his hand.

"How many of these things are there?" she asked, turning to Allison.

"What do you mean?" Louis asked.

"I stepped on one of these the first day we were here," Tawny said.

"Oh yeah!" Allison added. "It was a little hard to get out of your shoe, though."

Ren had recovered enough to step off of the bed and come to join the rest of the group. "How hard could that be?"

Allison took the needle from Tawny and stared at it. "Wait a minute—this isn't any regular sewing needle."

"What do you mean?" Tawny asked.

Allison closed her left eye and squinted at the needle. "I've never seen anything like it before, unless it's a Victorian model, but I don't see how this would sew clothing." She pointed to its tip. "It looks like it has two metal shapes attached to it. How could that get through a piece of cloth without tearing it?"

Louis, still holding the mouse closely in his hands, cut in, "Then I would say it's not just any sewing needle."

Tawny sighed and rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, well spotted, Louis."

"What do you think it could be?" Tom asked.

Allison shook her head. "I don't know. My brain is fresh out of ideas. How about you guys?"

Everyone else shook their heads.

"Who knows? It might not be anything at all," Tawny said.

"The mouse seems pretty attached to it, though," Louis said, smiling at the little critter.

"I think we should let it go now," Tawny said. "But we should keep the needle."

Louis sighed. "Fine. But we'll see him later."

The second he placed the mouse on the floor, it quickly scurried back to the hole in the closet wall and disappeared out of sight.

"Well, we have two pieces of something," Tawny said. "Or maybe just nothing."

"Okay," Ren said. "You all have lost it. What is really going on here?"

"Ren, _please_ believe us," Tawny said, taking Ren by the hands. "You have to. We need your help. How could you say that Miss Pateer is doing nothing out of the ordinary when she locked Louis and Twitty in a room?"

Ren's eyes opened wide as she stared in disbelief at her brother and his friend. "She locked you two in a _room_?"

>>>>

It was midnight, but despite the many people asleep in their bedrooms, getting recharged for the next day of mystery solving, there was still one room that, while still dark, was still very active. Louis, Twitty, Tawny, Allison, Tom, and now Ren sat in a small circle in the area between the two beds. Only a flashlight could help them see the worn pages of the photo album.

"What are we looking for?" Ren whispered.

"Well, there has to be something about this house that Miss Pateer must be interested in," Tawny replied just as quietly. "You said that Sophie knew the Stevensons, didn't you?"

"Yeah," Ren said.

It was quiet for a bit before Tawny asked, "How old would you say Sophie might be?"

Ren thought for moment. "I would say late 80's."

"But that would mean she was born in the 1920's," Tawny said. "That doesn't make sense."

"When did the Stevensons move into this house?" Allison asked.

"I think Miss Pateer said 1906," Ren replied. "And Eleanor was born a few months afterward. So if she were still alive now, she would be almost 100 years old."

"But she wasn't killed soon after, because if her bones weren't developed enough, she couldn't have been even a year old," Tawny said. "So maybe Miss Dunlap was talking about descendents."

"Who do you think the descendents are?"

"Well, the Stevensons, of course," Louis cut in.

"Louis!"

"Oof!" Louis gasped as Tawny elbowed him in the stomach. "Sorry, sheesh."

"Okay," Tawny said, as if Louis hadn't even said anything. "We have to find out what year these photo albums date up to."

"In old pictures like these, aren't there always dates written on the backside in a corner?" Allison asked.

"Yeah!" Ren said. "But how could we know without ruining them? They're all pasted down."

"Except for the one with the note, of course," Allison said, "but there's still hope."

They began searching random pages, carefully lifting up different corners of pictures, trying to find where the dates were written, and then lifting up those specific corners for each picture.

After about 10 minutes, the group was about ready to give up.

"Just a few more," Tawny tried to say as she held back a yawn. "1908…1912…1904…1921…1942…"

"1942?" Ren nearly shouted.

Tawny snapped awake. "That's it! It goes up to the 1940's!"

She studied the picture that the date had been hidden underneath. It was a picture of another baby with two stern-looking parents. "It's labeled Patty Stevenson. Oh, her again. I still haven't seen a picture of Eleanor. I guess she died too soon before they could get many photos of her. This picture must a couple of generations later."

"Let's just try a few more to make sure that the album really goes that late," Tom added.

It was a good five minutes before they found more pictures toward the end of the album that were dated in the 1940's.

"So Sophie must have known _some _Stevensons," Tom concluded. "What do we do now then?"

"We find out what Miss Pateer might be trying to do," Tawny said, snapping off the flashlight. "Until then, we have a quite a mystery on our hands."

**A/N:** Hope you liked this chapter as well! I have the entire story planned out, and I should be getting the next chapter out some time this summer (preferably this month)!


	15. The First Piece of the Puzzle

**A/N: **Well, I met my goal and updated again this month. Hopefully I can meet it again! But for now, enjoy!

**The First Piece of the Puzzle**

"All right, children!" Miss Pateer announced over the railing of the staircase. "I hope you had a goodnight's rest because the mystery must be solved by tonight! You're leaving for home first thing in the morning."

Down near the bookcase, next to the dining room opening, Ren and Tawny exchanged uneasy looks.

"I thought we weren't leaving until late afternoon," Tawny said.

"Same here," Ren replied, "and I should know because I'm the High School Helper."

"So what's with that?" Tawny asked.

They looked in Miss Pateer's direction simultaneously. She gave them a strange smile and then walked up the stairs.

"You know what this means, don't you?" Tawny asked, facing the rest of the group, who stood behind her.

"Well, of course!" Tom said. Tawny raised her eyebrows at him. "Well, no…not really."

Tawny sighed. "It means we have to figure out what Miss Pateer's up to and stop her by _tonight_! The only reason she may have cut the trip short is to stop us from figuring her out."

"How can you be so sure?" Ren asked.

"Think about it," Tawny said. "The permission slip we filled out in the first place specifically said that the time of day we _left_ Stevenson House was, under no circumstances, subject to change."

"How do you remember that?" Louis asked unbelievably.

"That's not important right now!" Tawny said. "Miss Pateer is probably emailing our parents as we speak."

"How do you know _that_?" Twitty asked, trying to sound detective-like.

Tawny rolled her eyes at him. "Because there are no phones on the upper floors, but there's a computer in her bedroom."

"Oh." Twitty casually looked at his feet.

"Now what?" Allison asked Tawny.

Tawny lowered her voice. "Let's go back upstairs and look at our clues."

No one had something to say to oppose this suggestion. As unsuspicious as possible, they made their way up the stairs and into Allison and Tawny's room. For the first time all week, Tawny looked around the room and thought about how much she would miss meeting here to discuss Miss Pateer's actions. But she couldn't let that distract her now.

"Okay," she said, shutting the door. "It's too bad there's no lock on the door. We could really use some security around here, especially now."

She joined the rest of the group, who had situated themselves into a circle on the floor. They waited for a moment as Allison retrieved the note from the mouse hole, Twitty took the photo album out of the dresser, and Louis brought the obscure needle to the middle of the circle.

Tawny carefully lined up the three items, being careful not to loose sight of the needle. "Now we need to start piecing together our clues."

For a few minutes they sat in silence, staring at the three objects in front of them. Not one person came up with an idea. Tawny eyed each thing carefully, occasionally bringing up suggestions, but in the end, they proved to hold no significance. Louis picked up the needle and began fidgeting with it. No one seemed to notice.

Suddenly, Tawny's head shot up. "Wait a minute!"

After making everyone jump at the sound of her sudden yelp, she began furiously turning the pages of the album, paying less attention to the condition of the pages than she ever had. Her eyes quickly scanned each page until she stopped at one and pointed at a dark picture. "The seamstress!"

Everyone leaned in anxiously, nearly crashing their heads together. Everyone, but Ren of course, vaguely remembered seeing the picture of the Negro seamstress that looked no happier than everyone else. But why had Tawny become so eager to look at it again?

"The asterisk," Tawny said. "Why didn't I see it before? I know now for a fact that Henry and Clarice themselves didn't hire people to make the albums. Their relatives and descendents did. How else could the pictures go up to the 1940's? The star next to the label means there's a clue in the picture."

"A clue?" Louis leaned in further to a take a closer look. "But what's the clue?"

"Take a look at what's in your hand, Louis," Tawny said, smiling slowly.

Louis looked down at the needle he had forgotten he was holding. "I get it now! The needle really _is_ something out of the ordinary!"

Allison quickly took the needle away from Louis and studied its tip again. "So what is it? What does it look like to you guys?"

No one spoke.

"I don't know," Tawny finally said.

"Well—" Ren started.

Just as sudden as she had grabbed for the album, Tawny stood up. "I need to go see something real quick. You guys stay here."

"Where are you going?" Louis asked her as she opened the door.

"Don't worry, I'll be right back."

"Wait! Someone should go with you!" Louis nearly yelled to her as she disappeared out of sight.

"You guys just keep looking for more asterisks!" She called from somewhere down the hallway.

>>>>

Tawny slowly made her way down the hall of the third floor. Nearly every step she made was accompanied by a rather loud creak. No one seemed to be on this floor at the moment; they were probably still in the parlor. Although this thought stayed put in Tawny's mind, she still made sure that she was as quiet and careful as possible.

After trying a few doors in the middle of the hallway, she finally found the narrow staircase that led up to Eleanor's room. She had to find out: if Miss Pateer was right about Jacob Schemer finding a secret passageway into the baby's room, _she_ hadto find it. She was even more encouraged when she remembered how she had found Louis and Twitty in the wall.

The steps were no better than the floor. Each creak made Tawny cower and almost cover her ears, hoping no one would hear her. She found that if she moved faster, she didn't put as much weight on the step, therefore making it creak less. She finally reached the top of the stairs and pushed open the door to Eleanor's room.

The sun shone brightly through the dusty curtains, illuminating almost everything in the room. As beautiful as the bedroom seemed, its dark history made Tawny shudder. Although she had held many conversations with Louis and Twitty since their arrival at Stevenson House, she had never thought once to ask them where they had actually _found _the secret passageway.

Tawny started in the far corner of the room, near the crib. She could almost swear she heard baby Eleanor crying in her mind. She shook it out of her head and continued looking, even underneath the crib. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw the outline of a small figure right at the foot of Eleanor's bed.

_Must be for the murder mystery_, she reasoned.

Next, Tawny moved to the other corner of the room. Although the sun was shining, she still couldn't see into this far side of the room. Then, she caught sight of the vent. Her heart nearly skipped a beat as she slowly crept to it. As she fit her fingers around it, she suddenly heard a noise come from the stairway: footsteps.

Her heart beating at an amazing speed, she frantically scanned the room for a hiding place. There wouldn't be enough time to get in the vent—and it would be too noisy anyway. She spotted a thick blanket in the corner and grabbed it, wasting no time before diving under the crib and covering herself with it. She did all of this just in time for Sophie and the butler, Francis, to appear in the doorway.

"These old steps," Sophie mumbled as she secured her foot on the wooden floor of the room. "I've just about had enough of this house. But then again, Patty's the one who had to come back here after all of that."

"Wait just one moment," Francis said, staring back at the doorway they had just come through. "I could have sworn we closed this door the last time we were in here. _She _must have been in here again."

"Well, let's just do what we came here for and make sure it's done right!" Sophie snapped, making her way slowly to the vent.

Tawny didn't dare peek out from under the blanket. She held her breath as she heard Sophie pass by. Contrary to stopping at the vent, she walked around the crib and closed the curtains. Tawny was sure of this; the room grew much darker.

"Hold on," Francis said. It was quiet for a moment. "Sophie, dear, I believe I left my screwdriver behind the counter of the gift shop. I guess we'll need to go back down and get it."

Tawny heard him quickly leave the room and march down the stairs. Tawny waited for Sophie to follow, and then heard her slowly walk across the floor to the steps and descend the staircase, probably following the light from the hallway below. Tawny waited for about five more minutes after the footsteps disappeared, until she threw off the blanket, gasping for air. Now she could barely see anything. The curtains Sophie had closed must have been thicker than the blanket! If she tried to open them, it would raise even more suspicions that the open door had.

Tawny stood up quickly and felt around for the door to the stairs. Apparently either Sophie or Francis had turned off the hall light, making it nearly impossible to see a thing. It seemed like ten minutes before she had successfully made her way across the room to the door. But now there was something eerie about the atmosphere of the room. It almost seemed like there were…ghosts.

Tawny felt for the doorway, closing her eyes in hopes that it would help her see better. She thought she had her foot on the first step when someone grabbed her shoulder.

"You're dead now," they said in a hushed whisper. "Lay on the floor. Go on. Someone will find you eventually. Just wait."

Tawny didn't know what to say. All she could do was lie on the floor where she was and hope that the person was right. She tried to identify the voice, but she had no idea who it could be. She listened to the person leave the room, closing the door behind them.

Then, she could have sworn that she heard a soft _click_.

**A/N: **The story's almost over! I'm sure there are at least a couple chapters left; just wait. Thanks for reading!


	16. The Surprise Under the Porch

**A/N: **This might be the second-to-last chapter of the story, but I'm not making any promises. Hope you like it, though!

**The Surprise Under the Porch**

For the past 15 minutes, since Tawny had left the room, Louis, Twitty, Allison, Tom, and Ren still sat in their circle. They had searched the entire album and had only come up with one other picture that had an asterisk next to it: the one with Henry and Clarice smiling and pointing to their house.

"So what do you think it is?" Allison asked, staring at the photo.

Louis shrugged. "If Tawny were here, she probably would have figured it out already."

"Where is she anyway?" Twitty asked.

Louis looked out the open door. "I don't know, but I think we should close this door."

He stood up quickly shut it.

Ren looked around for a moment as the rest of the group continued to search the album. "Does it seem a little…quiet to you guys?"

Everyone lifted their heads and listened.

"Yeah. It does seem kind of quiet," Tom said.

He stood up and walked over to the door. As he opened it, everyone else stood up and followed him into the hall. It was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

"Come on," Ren whispered, beckoning to the others.

She led them toward the staircase, listening through each bedroom door on the way. Silence.

It was so quiet that they felt they needed to whisper. They walked down the stairs slowly, the steps creaking the whole way down. They couldn't hear the usual talking of students to one another. They made their way down the rest of the steps and around the banister, only to see that the parlor was deserted.

"Okay, this weird," Twitty said a little louder.

"Where is everybody?" Ren asked. "Miss Pateer?"

No one responded to her call.

>>>>

The second the bedroom door had been locked, Tawny had taken in a deep breath and stood up. She felt her way carefully around the crib and to the window. It was difficult. There were different objects scattered all over the floor; things she had never even noticed before.

Now Tawny was almost sure that she was at the curtain of the window. She couldn't figure out how to get it open, though. There was no cord to pull, and she couldn't find the middle if she was supposed to part them. Tawny closed her eyes so she could maybe see better. She felt all over the curtain, but all she felt was dust on the velvety material. She traced the top of the window with both hands until they met in the middle. Then she felt down and tried to find a crack that could be separated.

Finally, Tawny came to her senses. She gripped both sides of the heavy curtain with both hands and pulled them apart. The sun blinded her eyes as it shone through the window. She let go of the curtains and shielded herself, gradually sliding her hands away until her eyes adjusted.

"Whew," she said softly.

But now what was she going to do? She was stuck here and no one knew where she was. Whoever had locked her in must have known something about the house. Suddenly, it dawned on her. The vent!

She ran over to it, grasping its edges in her fingers. With a grunt, she pulled it out of the wall. She set it gently aside and reached into the vent to see where it went. But she felt something—something hard. A barrier.

"Great."

Then she remembered Francis saying that _she _must have been in here again. It was obviously Miss Pateer. Miss Pateer had sealed the passageway. It was also obvious that the screwdriver was for screwing the vent itself shut. Exasperated, Tawny pushed the vent cover back into the wall and leaned against it.

There was one other thing she could do.

She jumped up and ran to the door, pounding on it with her fists. "Help! Somebody, please help me!"

>>>>

"You guys, we should go find Tawny," Louis said.

Everyone agreed, and they made their way back to the bedroom. Instead of going in, Tom pointed down the hall. "She went this way, and we never saw her come back."

They knocked on all of the doors down the hallway, and after hearing no answers, they moved to the third floor. Then they realized it. Tawny was in Eleanor's room.

"Let's go," Ren said.

They found the staircase that led up to the baby's room, and as they came closer, Tawny's screaming and pounding on the door became clearer.

"Tawny!" Louis yelled. "We're coming."

"Help!" She yelled from inside. "I'm locked in!"

The group reached the top of the stairs, staring at the locked door.

"What do we do?" Louis asked, turning to his friends.

The stood in silence for a moment, thinking. Tawny fell silent too.

Suddenly, Allison's face brightened. "I've got it!"

She pulled a bobypin out of her hair and began picking the lock. "I've seen this in movies."

"Does it actually work?" Ren asked, slightly annoyed.

Suddenly, the door clicked and Allison smiled. "Yep."

She turned the knob and opened the door.

"Tawny!"

Tawny let out a huge sigh of relief and hugged her friends. "Thank you so much!"

They began talking for a bit, until Ren realized it. "Hey, we still have a problem!"

They filled Tawny in on everything that was going on. Tawny, in return, told them about her "murder."

"So you couldn't figure out who it was?" Ren asked as they walked down the narrow steps.

"No," Tawny said. "Obviously they had to disguise their voice, or the people that got murdered would figure them out."

They walked down the third floor hallway in silence. As they started down the steps to the second floor, Tawny piped up, "So everyone's missing?"

"That's what it looks like," Tom replied. "But where would they be?"

"No idea," Tawny said. "But _we_ should get back to our room so we can look at that photo album. By the way, did you find any more asterisks?"

"Just one," Allison said.

When they got back to their bedroom, she showed Tawny the picture.

"Hmm," Tawny murmured. "They're pointing to the house, obviously. Maybe if we search around outside we might find something."

"Let's take our clues with us, then," Ren suggested, "so we don't lose them."

"Good idea," Tawny agreed.

They quickly walked out the room, carefully holding the three objects. They ran the rest of the way to the parlor and stopped at the front door. Surprisingly, it was unbolted, and slightly ajar. Shrugging at each other, they pulled open the door and ran out into the daylight.

This was actually the first time they had been outside since they first arrived. It felt nice to breath in some fresh air.

"Okay, we have no time to spare. Start looking," Tawny ordered everyone.

The group nodded and split up, searching around the house, the porch, and even the hedges. There was nothing to be seen. After about ten minutes, they met up in front of the porch, and Tawny opened the album to the picture.

"Let's see," she said quietly. "Maybe they're pointing at a specific location."

She touched the tip of Henry and Clarice's fingers and traced a straight line up to the porch. "They're pointing to the left side of the porch."

Without much hesitation, they made their way up the steps and over to the porch. They looked everywhere: on the railing, underneath the window, even through the cracks on the old wooden floor.

"This is hopeless!" Tawny said finally. "What did we actually expect to find? A buried treasure?"

During her sudden outburst, she lost her hold on the album and it fell to the floor, landing with a _clunk _on the porch. The clunk had sounded a bit different from their own footsteps on the floor. It sounded almost…hallow.

"Wait a minute," Tawny said, kneeling down to the album.

She knocked on the floor next to the album, and then picked it up and knocked on the spot it had fallen on. The sounds were certainly different.

"I think we found something!" She exclaimed.

She ran her fingers all over the floor, picking up a couple splinters on the way, but she paid them no mind. She noticed little cracks along the floor, shaping into a messy square. It was barely noticeable, but it was there. Tawny thought for a moment.

Then, she said suddenly, "Allison, give me that needle."

"Why?" Allison asked, handing it to her.

"Just do it. Trust me."

Tawny poked the needle through different cracks, until she came to a larger crack that seemed to have the same shape as the tip of the needle—the tip with the two tiny metal bars attached to it. She fit the tip into the crack and turned it. They heard a click from somewhere underneath the porch.

"It's a key!"

Without taking a moment to rest, everybody helped as Tawny fit her fingers between wider cracks in the floor and pulled the wooden door out of the floor. They placed it next to the hole in the porch and then peered inside the opening. They didn't need a flashlight to see what was in here.

"It's money," Tawny breathed.

She reached in and pulled out a faded piece of paper money, dated back to the early 1900's. "It's ancient!"

"What's this?" Ren reached in and pulled out a yellowed piece of paper.

As her eyes scanned front of the paper, they widened. "It's a will! It leaves the Stevenson's family fortune to a Joseph and Margaret Stevenson, to be passed to their son Nathaniel after their death, to be passed to his son Drake his death, and then Drake's son. This must be a later copy of Henry and Clarice's will!"

"You guys, I think we may have almost solved the mystery!" Tawny said happily. "I can't believe this. Thanks so much for your help, Ren!"

"No," came Miss Pateer's voice, "thank you."

**A/N: **All I'll say now is to watch out for the next chapter!


	17. Secrets Revealed

**A/N: **Sorry it took a while to get the next chapter up. It's safe to say that this is not the last one, but the next one might be it. Thanks for reviewing!

**Secrets Revealed**

Miss Pateer, Sophie, and Francis were blocking every possible escape route. All Louis, Tawny, Twitty, Allison, Tom, and Ren could do was stand still with the will in their hands. As Miss Pateer began talking, Tawny realized that she had unconsciously grabbed Louis' hand with her own. He didn't seem to notice; he was too frightened by Miss Pateer.

"I knew it!" Miss Pateer stepped forward and snatched the will out of Ren's hand. "I knew you were after the money! And I caught you, red-handed."

"_Us_?" Tawny found herself shouting. "How do we know _you _weren't the one that was after it? We had no idea of what you were looking for!"

"Ugh, lies," Miss Pateer retorted. "I knew the Stevenson family fortune was in danger when I was asked to run this horrid murder mystery house. I knew someone would find out about it and try to steal it during a group visit. To think that it was the very first group to come here!"

"What are you talking about?" Tawny asked. "We don't want this money! _You _obviously do. _You _want to steal it, not us!"

"That's where you're wrong, Miss Kate McRaver," Miss Pateer spat (she still didn't know their real names). "And for some reassurance, I'll see to it that you never get within a mile of this money for the rest of your lives! You'll be leaving Stevenson House tomorrow, and after I report you, you'll never come near this neighborhood again!"

With that, Miss Pateer nodded to Sophie and Francis, who grabbed an arm of each kid and forced them toward the front door. Miss Pateer kept the will clutched in her hands as she walked ahead of the group and opened the door.

Louis' heart was beating wildly. What were they going to do to them? They obviously weren't going to harm them, because Miss Pateer herself had said that they would be going home tomorrow. But it definitely seemed that she was going to frame them for something they didn't do.

As Miss Pateer, Sophie, and Francis shoved the group up the staircase, Miss Pateer began talking again.

"I didn't believe Sophie after your little trick with locking those two back into the attic." She motioned toward Louis and Twitty. "But I kept going up there to investigate and I found the passageway for myself! Luckily, Sophie and Francis took care of that for me. This time, you won't be escaping at all."

She paused as they reached the top of the stairs and started for the second set to the third floor. It was silent as they walked up each step, most of which creaked loudly and made the group even more intimidated.

"There's one thing you might not have thought of." Tawny fought up the courage to speak again. "How can you do all this without anybody finding you out?"

"Simple," Miss Pateer smiled wickedly. "I just have to make sure there are no witnesses, and that you all don't talk."

"And how are you going to do that?"

"Oh, I'll have the police on my side, don't worry," Miss Pateer replied smoothly.

"Hey, my mom's the state senator!" Louis yelled out. "We can go public!"

Miss Pateer didn't reply.

"But speaking of witnesses," Tawny went on. "I don't get this. Where is everybody?"

"Easy," Miss Pateer said. "We took everybody out to different restaurants for lunch, in separate groups. You all are supposedly one of those groups, to your classmates at least."

"Oh, how cunning," Tawny said mockingly.

"You had better shut your mouth there!" Miss Pateer snapped at her. "You have already said more than you should!"

The rest of the walk was in silence. It seemed like hours before the group reached the door leading to Eleanor's room. Miss Pateer threw open the door and began marching up the steps. The group didn't even try to resist going up; the grips Sophie and Francis had on their arms were rock solid.

When everyone had reached the top of the room, Miss Pateer threw them toward the far wall where the vent was. "Now it's all right that this is the only bedroom with a lock on the door, because it's the _only_ way out. And I'll be seeing you, Mr. Schemer." She smirked at Louis.

"Um, don't you mean Mr. McDorman?" Louis asked timidly.

"Oh, I think you know perfectly well what I mean." With that, Miss Pateer slammed the door shut and they heard it click immediately.

Tawny slid her back down the wall until she was sitting on the dust covered floor. "Now what are we going to do? We could get in serious trouble if Miss Pateer goes to the police."

"Not on my watch," Louis said confidently and ran to the vent.

With a grunt, he pulled on it, but it would budge.

"Great," Tawny sighed. "Sophie and Francis must have screwed it shut while we were outside. Now we really are stuck in here."

"Maybe we can knock the door down," Louis suggested.

"Are you kidding?" Tawny asked him. "Henry and Clarice probably had this house built with the finest and sturdiest wood that there was."

"Maybe we can find something to knock it down with. How about the cradle?"

He, Twitty, and Tom tried lifting it, but it was too heavy.

"I guess that stops that idea."

Tawny buried her face in her hands and stayed like that for about a minute. Then suddenly, she looked up and a look of pure excitement crossed her face. "Mr. Schemer. Jacob Schemer! Louis, remember that picture we found of him that night in the storage room?"

"Yeah, my so-called twin," Louis replied grimly. "I thought that was just a coincidence."

"It _was _coincidence. Isn't it obvious now?" Tawny asked. "Miss Pateer thinks you're related to him! She thinks you're trying to finish what he started 100 years ago! It makes sense, doesn't it?"

All of a sudden, Ren got the same look of excitement. "That _definitely_ makes sense, and I'm trusting you on this because I never saw the picture."

"There's just one thing I'm confused about," Tom said. "Why would Miss Pateer be protecting the fortune?"

"Well, duh, she's greedy," Twitty said.

"She probably wanted to find the will and money for herself," Allison added, smiling at Twitty. "She's probably even modifying the will as we speak!"

"But how could she find out about it?" Louis asked.

"There are probably a hundred places of references on the Stevenson family in this subdivision," Ren said. "I remember seeing a library that we passed on the way here. There are probably records inthere."

"You're probably right," Tawny said. "But that doesn't help us. We have to get out of here and go to the police. I really think our only chance is that vent."

"What about the window?" Louis asked, his eyes flickering over to the wall on his left.

"Sure, if you want to fall to your death," Tawny scoffed. "Did you happen to look at that dangerous obstacle course of a roof while we were outside?"

"Then, I guess that vent _is_ our best bet," Ren said. "Someone help me find something that might unscrew it."

She and Allison bent over and began searching the floor for anything that might help.

"That needle might have even done it," Allison commented as she straightened up for a moment.

"Oh no," Tawny said as Allison bent down again. "The needle. The album. We must have left it on the porch!"

"Great, they probably have them by now," Ren said, giving up her search. "I think our best bet of getting out of here is by using our own fingers to get the screws off."

"I was afraid of that," Tawny said, and reluctantly reached for one of the screws.

After about ten minutes of "killing" their hands, Tawny and Tom managed to unscrew two of the nails. They each blew on their hands and shook them out.

"Ugh, that's painful," Tawny winced. "My nails feel like they're about to fall off."

"Almost there," Louis said, ignoring her as another screw came loose. "Got it."

"One more to go," Twitty said. "I could use a little help here."

Allison quickly put her hand on his and helped him try turning the screw. Together, they got it to move and finally twisted it until it came out of the wall.

"Whew!" Allison and Twitty collapsed on their backs.

"It hurt, but it was worth it," Allison smiled.

"Well, we have no time to spare," Tawny said. "Who knows what Miss Pateer has done by now?"

She pulled the vent cover out of the wall and gently placed it aside, so it wouldn't make any noise that could be heard below. Without hesitation, she climbed inside of the opening, which was just big enough for each person to fit in. They slid down the narrow ramp as quickly as they could, and were all finally gathered at the place where Tawny had originally found Louis and Twitty in the wall.

"So, if Miss Pateer's entire story was right, there should be another passage that leads outside," Tawny whispered.

She reached in front of her and felt around. Her hand was rested on a wall, so she moved it to the left and almost fell forward when all she touched was air.

Containing her excitement, she reported to the group, "I think I found it."

She went in first, and immediately found that there was another ramp, only it was wider, so two people could fit in at a time, side by side. She went down with Louis, followed by Twitty and Allison, and then Tom and Ren. When they reached the bottom, they had to round a corner until they saw a light shining through at the far wall.

Tawny crawled forward and pushed at the spot where there were strips of light. It pushed out and fell with a clunk onto the grass outside. She let out the breath she realized she had been holding, crawled through, and somersaulted through the opening and onto the grass.

The rest of the group was more careful. Louis came out as Tawny moved aside. When everyone had gulped in some fresh air, they ran around the side of the house and checked the porch to see if the album and needle were still there. Surprisingly, they were.

Tawny quickly grabbed the two items, checking to see if the money was still inside the hole. It wasn't. With a sigh of disappointment, Tawny beckoned everyone to cross the street and walk around to find a payphone. They walked about three blocks until they came from one. Tom dug a quarter out of his pocket and Tawny made the call to the police station.

>>>>

The police had easily found the group huddled together on a bench next to the payphone, and drove them back to Stevenson House. The officer driving the car with Tawny, Louis, and Ren in it identified himself as Officer Stan. He had listened intently to Tawny on the phone, and had notified all of their parents to come out to Stevenson House at once.

For the first time since they had come to Stevenson House, Louis and Tawny felt safe. When they arrived at the old mansion, they saw that the students were filing in through the front door, apparently having just come back from lunch. Louis couldn't help but smile when he saw their looks of bewilderment when they pulled up in the police cars.

Tawny then pieced together that Miss Pateer, Sophie, and Francis must have taken the kids to lunch, and then left with a lame excuse, to come back and catch them doing something—or to do something themselves. Then they must have rushed back to the restaurants, not noticing the album and needle still sitting on the porch. She could now see Sophie and Francis escorting the kids back in, but Miss Pateer was nowhere to be seen.

Officer Stan and the other officers quickly got everyone inside and began talking to Sophie and Francis, who had very nervous looks on their faces. Tawny looked around the parlor for Miss Pateer, but couldn't find her. Officer Stan began asking her and Louis more questions about what had happened during the week. Their classmates and gotten over their puzzlement and were now excitingly talking to each other and starting small rumors.

"We need to find Miss Pateer right away," Officer Stan said to Tawny and Louis. "Miss Dunlap and Mr. Ovin aren't talking. Can either of you come with me to search the premises?"

"I can," Tawny said. "I think I have an idea of where she is."

>>>>

By the time they had reached the second floor, Tawny had related the entire story to Officer Stan. He seemed a bit surprised when she told him about the passageway. He told her that he had read about the story of the murderin an old newspaper in the local library, but wasn't sure if he should believe it.

Now Tawny was able to prove this to him. She pushed open the wall like she had the first time, and there, cowering in the passageway, was Miss Pateer. She stared up at them with a look that could kill, but when she realized that the person standing next to Tawny was a police officer, she suddenly looked away, terrified.

"All right, ma'am, you're coming with us," Officer Stan said, taking her by the arm and pulling her out of the passageway.

As they made their way back to the parlor, Miss Pateer gave Tawny a sly look, but she ignored it. Miss Pateer wasn't going to weasel her way out of this one. And Tawny had recently just uncovered another secret about Miss Pateer; something she had never expected.

As the three stood on the bottom step of the stairway in the parlor, Tawny quieted everyone down before making her announcement.

"Everybody, I would like to present to you, Miss Patty Pateer Stevenson."

**A/N: **If you have trouble understanding the facts of this little secret, everything will be explained in this next, and probably last, chapter.


	18. Mystery Solved

**A/N: **Well, here it is: the final chapter. It has been a joy writing it these past two years, and it feels strange that I'm finally finishing it. Well, enjoy!

**Mystery Solved**

Everyone in the room: the 8th graders, Ren, and even some police officers stared wide-eyed at Miss Pateer, who stood stiff as a board on the bottom step of the staircase. Her face remained expressionless as Louis broke the silence.

"Miss Pateer's a Stevenson?"

No one said a word after Louis spoke. After about a minute, Tawny left Officer Stan's side and stepped off the staircase. Everyone parted and made a path for her as she walked around the banister and to the sofas. Officer Stan walked Miss Pateer over to where Tawny stood, as another police officer took her other arm.

Suddenly, Miss Pateer blurted out, "Just because Henry and Clarice died, doesn't mean that the whole family went down with them!"

Louis jumped back at her sudden yell, nearly stepping on Twitty's foot.

"How did _you _find out?" Miss Pateer snarled at Tawny.

"Simple, really," Tawny replied calmly. "_Obvious_, actually."

She looked around the large parlor. "Your attachment to this place, Sophie saying she knew some Stevensons, and the pictures in the photo album."

"What pictures?" Louis asked.

"You remember seeing pictures of a Patty Stevenson, don't you?" Tawny asked him.

Suddenly, Ren, Twitty, Allison, and Tom's eyes widened even more.

"I get it!" Louis cried out. "The photo dated in the 1940's. That was you!" He pointed to Miss Pateer, who still remained emotionless.

"Patty Stevenson," Tawny said, almost to herself. "Remember also when I was 'murdered'? When I was hiding under the blanket, I heard Sophie say that Patty's the one who had to come back here after all of that. It just made sense."

Miss Pateer stared at the floor and shook her head. Then a soft sob escaped her lips. Suddenly, her face became raged as she stared up at everybody, the 8th graders crowding the room, the police officers…

She began breathing hard. "You_, you,_ you horrible little brat! That will belongs to me! It's my birthright! There's no one else to claim the family fortune. There's no one else but me!"

"That's where you're wrong, Miss Pateer," Officer Stan cut in. "We did a check on your family background after Miss Dean's call, and we came across another Stevenson—a Scott Stevenson. Do you know this name?"

Miss Pateer didn't answer at first, but then quickly shook her head. "I've never heard of him in my life."

"Oh, I think you do," Officer Stan said. "How could someone forget their own brother?"

There was another stir in the room, as students began whispering to one another. Sophie and Francis looked even more intimidated, and there were police officers keeping an eye on them as well.

Miss Pateer stared back down at the floor, avoiding Officer Stan's glare.

"He never knew about the money, did he?" he asked her. "_Did _he?"

"No." Miss Pateer continued to stare at the floor.

"Look at me when I speak to you!" Officer Stan suddenly barked at her.

Miss Pateer snapped her head up and met his eyes. At his sudden shout, many other people in the room had nearly jumped out of their socks as well.

"Tell me, Miss Pateer," Officer Stan spoke softer now. "Please sit down before we take you to the station. I believe everyone here should hear this."

Miss Pateer nodded and walked around the coffee table, Officer Stan's hand never leaving her arm, and sat down. It was silent for a moment. Everyone stepped a little closer to the sofa where she sat, anxious to hear what she had to say. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she began speaking.

"When I was a little girl, about 9-years-old, my parents died of cholera. We were living in this house. It had been passed down many generations since Henry and Clarice's deaths. We all knew that the Stevensons had hidden their money and a copy of their will after Jacob Schemer had threatened them. They didn't trust anyone, not even the bank, to hold on to their money. They were afraid it would crash. The only thing the bank held onto was the official will. Each time another Stevenson was born, the version of the will they kept was modified. After they died, their relatives continued modifying it until Scott was born. That's when it stopped.

"The Stevenson strongly looked down upon women. They only believed that their fortune should be passed down to men. So I was not included in the family will. Scott was. Scott had been going to a boarding school in Nevada since he was six, and our parents never discussed the will with him. He didn't even know he was included in it. He often asked during the summers, but they never told him. I, on the other hand, went to private school in town, and was able to eavesdrop on my parent's conversations in their bedroom after school." Miss Pateer seemed quite proud of herself as she said this. "All I could understand was that the money was hidden somewhere in this house, and that they had modified the will after my brother was born. I also had already known that women were not included in it. My father spoke of _this _often." There was a hint of bitterness in her voice now.

"I also heard them one day say that they were arranging it so the photo albums they were putting together would give clues as to where the money was hidden, just in case something happened and their relatives needed to find it. Well, when I finally worked up the courage to face my parents and ask them about the entire thing, they took ill. I never got a chance." Miss Pateer wiped at a tear that fell from her eye. "But there was another person that I was even closer to than my parents. Our housekeeper, Sophie."

Everyone turned to look at Sophie, who stood near the front door, looking as though she were about to faint.

"Sophie," Miss Pateer continued, "was my friend. I could talk to her about anything—except the money. Not even she was trusted enough to be let in on my parent's conversations. Our butler, Francis, didn't know anything either. When my parents died, their own personal will instructed that both Sophie and Francis be put in charge of my well-being. Scott continued to go to school in Nevada, and he began to spend his summers there as well. This gave me a chance to talk with Sophie and Francis aloneas I grew up. We only occasionally searched the albums; we didn't have enough time on our hands to do it every day.

"When I went to college, I left this house for four long years. Sure, I came back during the summer, but it was hard too. It was becoming harder and harder to even look at that house, where so many people had died. We would have sold the house right away, had it not been for the unfound money. There were no relatives to contact—that's why Sophie and Francis were the only people available to take care of me—so when I graduated college, we continued to search the albums. Up until now we had only gotten through OLOP 13. Our lives were too hectic, and Sophie and Francis refused to work on itwithout me. I had to get a job, and it was impossible to find a lot of spare time. I grew older with Sophie and Francis, never with Scott. He married and moved to Nevada permanently. You're right, sir." She acknowledged Officer Stan. "He never knew about the money."

"And you never told him," Officer Stan said to her. "The money that was rightfully his was never brought to his attention. That can mean some serious trouble for you, Miss Pateer."

Suddenly, Miss Pateer jumped up, causing Officer Stan's grip on her arm to loosen. "I have already lost my parents and my husband, and I will not let this fortune slip out of my hands as well!"

She jerked herself toward Tawny, but Officer Stan and the other officer grabbed her arms and held her back. They then forced her back onto the sofa.

"Your husband?" Officer Stan regained his breath.

"Yes, Edward. Edward Pateer." Miss Pateer began sobbing now. "He may not have been a blood relative, but he lived here with me and needed that money to support us and Sophie and Francis. He deserves to rest in peace, knowing that the money is finally ours."

"It's not that simple, Miss Pateer," Officer Stan told her. "That money was not left to you. It belongs to your brother."

Miss Pateer shook her head, crying silently now. "It's not fair." That was all she said.

Officer Stan looked up at Tawny. "Miss Dean, can you clarify some more of this for us?"

"I think so," Tawny replied, taking a deep breath. "At the beginning of the trip, when we found the storage room full of albums, Twitty, Alan I mean, used OLOP 14 to get away from Francis."

Now everyone stared at Twitty, who looked down at the floor awkwardly. Nevertheless, Tawny continued.

"The album was on the coffee table, which means Miss Pateer was looking at it, apparently looking for the clues. When Alan took it, she tried to find it."

There was another murmur among the crowd of students.

"And after being murdered in the attic, I know for a fact that the murderer must have been one of these three." Tawny pointed to Miss Pateer, Sophie, and Francis. "Someone who wanted to keep me from figuringthem out."

"But wouldn't Ren have known this whole time?" Louis spoke up, staring at his sister. "You wrote us our characters, didn't you?"

Ren smiled nervously. "I wish I could tell you who the murderer was, but Principal Wexler had told me to let Miss Pateer handle the actual murderer. He said that she told him she would pick the person and tell them when they arrived. That way, I could play also."

"So, who was it?" Louis demanded. "Who was the murderer?"

"I was."

Everyone quickly looked around and stared in the direction of where the voice had come from. They stepped away from the front door, revealing the now open space where Sophie and Francis stood.

Sophie stepped forward. "I was the murderer."

"You," Officer Stan said. "Why wasn't one of the kids the murderer?"

Sophie sighed. "When Patty saw that boy," she gestured toward Louis, "she became convinced that he was in relation to Jacob Schemer. She wanted to make sure that he wasn't up to anything, so just in case he was, she wanted me to be the murderer so I could take care of him if he tried to pull anything. As the week progressed, the she became even_more_ suspicious of him. She was especially worried when she found him almost in the secret passageway. That completely convinced her that he was after the money. So she tried to lock him and his accomplice into the attic right away, and deal with the other students' curiosity later. Of course, when Miss Dean asked me about the two boys, I had to make sure that nothing was revealed. The only thing I could do was shoo her out of the kitchen.

"I had grown to love Patty over the years, but she becameso obsessed with finding that money that she would stop at nothing to get it. She began to treat us badly, yelling at us on random occasions, telling us that we were the problem. Yes, she grew old with us, but she was never the same 9-year-old girl she had been before her parents died. Once, I even tried to contact Scott to tell him about the money, but she caught me, and never trusted me again like she had when she was a child.

"Then, we decided to make amends and do some work on the house. We would find the money eventually, but for now we had to make a living. Then someone came and knocked on our door—"

"Oh, I'll never forget that day," Miss Pateer suddenly interrupted. "The day when that man came to our door and told us about starting a murder mystery house here. All I wanted to do was refurnish the house! But no, he insisted that we start a mystery house. I would have refused if he hadn't offered me the sum of money that he did. I then decided that I had no choice. I took the money and we began cleaning up a bit for the first group.

"Then this Lawrence Jr. High School came up somehow and we were practically forced to call and offer them the first visit. Then they came, and you know what happened after that. When that album disappeared, I had a fit. Then I realized that that girl, Tawny, whatever her name is, was too smart for her own good. I knew that she was up to something with those two boys. When Francis and Sophie went to screw the vent closed the first time, Francis later informed me that he had noticed someone inside the room. We had earlier put a block of granite in the vent just in case, so I knew they wouldn't escape. I knew it was one of those three in there, so I sent them back up, knowing that they had at least locked the door.

"But then they came back and told me that whoever had been in there was gone! I hoped I would catch them, so to avoid making a scene, we took everyone else out to lunch."

Now the 8th graders were gasping and talking loudly. The officers shushed them down and urged Miss Pateer to continue.

"When I had Sophie and Francis finally screw the vent closed, the removed the block of granite, thinking we wouldn't need it anymore." She shot a threatening look at the two, but now they didn't melt under that deathly stare of hers.

"You know, Patty," Sophie said to her calmly. "When I took care of you, I made you exercise with Francis and me, but you refused. You always were a stubborn child. Then you thought that you could take advantage of the fine shape we were in, now in our late 80's, to shove these poor children around. Well, I have had just about enough of this. I'm through with you, Patty. I should have just left you years ago. You don't care about Francis and me anymore. All you care about is the money. You became so obsessed with it that you forgot about the people you loved. And now, it has all caught up with you. And I'm not going to be a part of this any longer."

"Miss Pateer, I think it's time to go now," Officer Stan told her. "We'll question you further down at the station."

This last comment sent Miss Pateer over the edge.

"I knew you were trouble the second I saw you! You all were!" she screamed at Louis and the rest of his friends. "You'll pay for this!"

"That's enough!" Officer Stan yelled. "Miss Pateer, you are under arrest for putting innocent children in danger, and attempting to steal the Stevenson's inheritance that is not rightfully yours."

"It should be mine!" Miss Pateer exclaimed as he began to read her rights to her.

More officers grabbed hold of her and pulled her across the room and out the door to the police cars. Sophie and Francis were brought out the door too. The students crowded around the doorway, trying to watch what was happening. Tawny and Louis had to shove their way through the crowd to get out onto the porch. Many neighbors had come outside to see what all the commotion was about.

"Who knows, Miss Pateer?" Louis called out to her. "Maybe your brother will even share it with you!"

That remark was half a joke, and half sincerity. But either way he had intended it, he received another jab in the ribs from Tawny.

Back inside, Officer Stan had come back in and was now talking to Louis and Tawny.

"We'll see to it that the inheritance is delivered to Mr. Stevenson, after a firm confirmation from our department attorney," he told them. "I can't thank you enough for all of your help. Not many people knew about the hidden money. And to just pull this out of thin air like you did, well, that itself is amazing. Now, we're going to do a thorough investigation of this house to see if we can uncover anything else."

Louis and Tawny nodded and stepped aside as police officers began looking around.

Feeling suddenly exhausted, Louis and Tawny collapsed onto the sofa Miss Pateer had been sitting on minutes before. Ryan broke away from the crowd and looked at them astonishingly.

"That Sophie was creepy when she killed me," he told them. "I would have never guessed that it was her."

"Me neither," Louis said.

"I had been wondering what you guys were doing in the girls' room all that time," Ryan said to Louis, as well as Twitty and Tom, who had just joined them on the sofa.

"Well, now you know," Louis said.

Ryan nodded and smiled slightly. Then he walked away.

"You know what, Tawny?" Louis asked her.

"What?" she smiled.

"You're a genius." With that, he kissed her on the cheek.

Later, Mr. and Mrs. Stevens burst through the door, grabbed Ren and Louis and hugged them fiercely. They were hysterical from the fact that their children had been in that kind of danger all week, and hadn't been able to call them. After their 'thank goodness you're okay's and 'how in the world could you do this without getting help's, they finally calmed down and listened as their son and daughter told them the entire story.

Tawny, Tom, Twitty, and Allison repeated the story for their parents too. In the midst of their conversation, Officer Stan emerged from the gift shop, holding a photo album.

"I thought you might want to see this," he told them.

"OLOP 1." Tawnyread the cover.

Officer Stan opened the album to the first page and held it out for everyone to see.

Louis read the label. "Eleanor Stevenson, our everlasting sunshine."

"Eleanor," Tawny breathed, a tear escaping her eye.

They all stared at the worn photo.

"We believe it was the only picture taken of her," Officer Stan added.

The baby smiled at them from the picture. Her short blond curls covered the top of her round-shaped head, and her beautiful large eyes were heart-warming. To think that those eyes had seen the horror they had on the night of her murder. Tawny and Allison began crying openly. Twitty hesitantly wrapped his arm around Allison's shoulder, and then seemed to relax into it. She leaned on his shoulder and her crying stopped a short while after.

"I think it's about time that we get you home," Eileen Stevens said to Louis and Ren.

"Yeah, me too," Louis replied.

Now that he thought about it as he packed upstairs, Louis hadn't spent much time in his own room. When his suitcase was closed, he gave it to his dad and went to see how Tawny and Allison were doing. They had obviously finished packing before him, and were just sitting on Allison's bed, talking.

"Well," Louis said, looking around the room. "We sure had a fun time here, didn't we?"

"Yeah," Tawny laughed softly. "We sure did."

"You know what?" Louis asked. "I'm actually gonna miss it."

"Me too," Allison smiled.

Twitty and Tom then joined them.

"We're finished packing," Twitty said.

"Then I guess we had better go now," Tawny said, standing up.

"Hey, where's that photo album?" Twitty asked.

"I turned it in to the police," Tawny replied. "They're going to look at it some more. I have a feeling this will be in the newspaper tomorrow."

This comment was met with silence.

"Well, we had better get downstairs. The bus is leaving with the other kids. And our parents are waiting," Tawny said.

They filed out of the room, pulling their suitcases behind them. Tawny, who was the last to leave, took one last look at the room, smiled slightly, and then closed the door.

When all of their luggage was outside and packed into the cars, Louis and Tawny stared up at the house, which was now surrounded by the darkness of the night.

"To think of the horrible memories this house holds," Tawny said.

"Yeah," Louis replied. "I guess some things are worse than paper trash pickup."

>>>>

"Mail's here!" Ren called.

The summer sun blazed through the windows, and not even the air conditioning could keep all the heat in the atmosphere under control.

It had been two months since their visit to Stevenson House, but they had not forgotten it. They had been recognized in both school, and the newspapers that ran near Stevenson House, as heroes. Louis and his friends didn't get through one day during their last months of junior high without being congratulated on their work there or hearing it mentioned somewhere in the school.

Now Louis charged down the stairs, whipped around the corner, and almost collided with Ren.

"Watch it! Gosh," Ren said angrily, as Louis tried to grab the mail out of her hands, but she snatched it away and began flipping through it. "Hey, it's here!"

She pulled out a manila envelope and shoved the rest of the letters into Louis' arms, who tossed them onto the kitchen counter. Ren quickly opened it and pulled out a large picture. "Wow, it's beautiful!"

"Let me see!" Louis grabbed the picture out of her hand and stared at it. "Whoa, I barely even recognized it!"

A couple weeks after the Stevenson House visit, Scott Stevenson had given the Stevens a call to thank them for their help. He told them that the will had been proved valid and he had decided to use some of the money to refurnish the house. His sister, Miss Pateer, was in court, but Sophie and Francis had received much less severe punishments. They hadn't heard anything about the court's ruling, but Scott had decided that no matter what happened, he thought his sister deserved a small fraction of the money. Louis and Ren didn't know if they agreed with him, but respected his decision.

"After all," Louis had said. "That's what brothers are for."

Now they looked at the picture of the newly furnished Stevenson House. Its siding and bricks had been replaced and the entire inside torn out and redone. As they flipped through more pictures of the inside of the house, they were amazed at how much it had changed. The parlor looked completely different. Its wooden floor had been polished and its walls repainted.

They looked through some more pictures of some bedrooms, the kitchen, and the dining room. It even took a while to figure out which rooms they were, because of how different they looked. Finally, as they came to the last photo, they recognized it immediately. The pale pink walls had been painted a more dominant and festive shade, and the window had been replaced and decorated with a new curtain. The wooden floor was shining and the vent cover had been replaced as well.

"I wonder if that's what Eleanor's room looked like when they first moved in," Ren said, staring at the picture.

"Maybe," Louis said. "I think I'll scan these and email them to the gang."

Before he was able to leave, Ren reached inside the envelope and pulled out something else. "Hey, wait! There's a letter."

Louis stopped in his tracks and stared at the piece of paper she held in her hands.

"It's from Scott Stevenson," Ren said, scanning the letter. "It says that Stevenson House is going to become a museum; it'll have the albums on display and everything." She looked up. "We should go visit it when it opens."

"Yeah, that would actually be kind of cool," Louis agreed. "We could see its new glorious self in person."

Ren smiled. "You had better go email those pictures. I know they're dying to see them."

"Okay," Louis said, grabbing a couple of them from Ren. He turned on his heel and ran backto the stairs.

Ren sat down at the kitchen counter, looking over the pictures again.

_What a week that was_, she thought to herself.

Well, she knew one thing now at least. It would be a _very_ long time before she decided to be a High School Helper again.

**THE END**

**A/N: **I would like to give a very special thanks to:

Qwerty, VampireWithASoul, LiDdLeGurLyAnGeL, MS, almostalone, aL33Na, lily, Jas, bballfreak1888, Padfoot n' Moony, soul of molten chocolate, themessenger, Megan, Queen-of-sarcasm, cutypie786, MD Excavator, vikingod, TanLam, yukistar2, LCDM, john, princess4eva, TrappedinAb0x, Msoreo, Jesse's Grl, Kate, adaire, BlackCats08, and DracosGurl.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed my story, and even if you didn't review, I hope you liked it and I appreciate you reading it. I have had a lot of fun writing this story, and I'm really going to miss adding to it. But thanks again, and I hope you'll read other stories by me in the future!


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